Quinoline yellow

E number E104INS 104CAS 8004-92-0

Used as a colour.

Quinoline Yellow is a synthetic greenish-yellow dye used in soft drinks, confectionery and desserts in the European Union. It is one of the six colours that must carry the activity-and-attention warning in the EU, and it is not permitted in food in the United States.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Quinoline yellow by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
JurisdictionStatusScope and limitsCitation
United StatesFood and Drug AdministrationNot listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited.
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

31 food categories

highest permitted level 500 mg/kg

Show every food category
  • 01.1.4 Flavoured Fluid Milk Drinks — 10 mg/kg
  • 01.7 Dairy-based desserts (e.g. pudding, fruit or flavoured yoghurt) — 150 mg/kg
  • 02.4 Fat-based desserts excluding dairy-based dessert products of food category 01.7 — 9 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.4 Canned or bottled (pasteurized) fruit — 200 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.5 — 100 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.7 Candied fruit — 200 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.8 Fruit preparations, including pulp, purees, fruit toppings and coconut milk — 10 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.9 Fruit-based desserts, incl. fruit-flavoured water-based desserts — 150 mg/kg
  • 04.2.2.5 Vegetable (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes, and aloe vera), seaweed, and nut and seed purees and spreads (e.g. peanut butter) — 100 mg/kg
  • 05.2.1 Hard candy — 100 mg/kg
  • 05.2.2 Soft candy — 100 mg/kg
  • 05.2.3 Nougats and marzipans — 100 mg/kg
  • 05.3 Chewing gum — 30 mg/kg
  • 05.4 Decorations (e.g. for fine bakery wares), toppings (non-fruit), and sweet sauces — 50 mg/kg
  • 06.3 Breakfast cereals, including rolled oats — 200 mg/kg
  • 06.5 Cereal and starch based desserts (e.g. rice pudding, tapioca pudding) — 100 mg/kg
  • 07.2 Fine bakery wares (sweet, salty, savoury) and mixes — 200 mg/kg
  • 09.2.2 Frozen battered fish, fish fillets and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 290 mg/kg
  • 09.2.4.3 Fried fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 100 mg/kg
  • 09.3.3 Salmon substitutes, caviar and other fish roe products — 100 mg/kg
  • 09.4 Fully preserved, including canned or fermented fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 290 mg/kg
  • 12.4 Mustards — 300 mg/kg
  • 12.5 Soups and broths — 50 mg/kg
  • 12.6 Sauces and like products — 500 mg/kg
  • 13.3 Dietetic foods intended for special medical purposes (excluding products of food category 13.1) — 10 mg/kg
  • 13.4 Dietetic formulae for slimming purposes and weight reduction — 10 mg/kg
  • 13.5 Dietetic foods (e.g. supplementary foods for dietary use) excluding products of food categories — 10 mg/kg
  • 13.6 Food supplements — 300 mg/kg
  • 14.1.4 Water-based flavoured drinks, including "sport," “energy,” or "electrolyte" drinks and particulated drinks — 70 mg/kg
  • 14.2.7 Aromatized alcoholic beverages (e.g. beer, wine and spirituous cooler-type beverages, low-alcoholic refreshers) — 70 mg/kg
  • 15.1 Snacks - potato, cereal, flour or starch based (from roots and tubers, pulses and legumes) — 200 mg/kg
CXS 192-1995 Table One, INS 104and 30 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

A mixture of the sulfonated forms of 2-(2-quinolyl)indan-1,3-dione, synthesised from petroleum-derived aromatic intermediates. No animal material is involved.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian
CAS registry number
8004-92-0

Every name it appears under

6 recorded names. A label may use any of them.

E number

  • E104

INS number

  • 104

CAS registry number

  • 8004-92-0

Other names

  • E 104
  • QUINOLINE YELLOW

Systematic names

  • Disodium 2-(1,3-dioxoinden-2-yl)quinoline-6,8-disulfonate

Hazard reference values

Values set by assessing bodies. A body that has not set a value is not listed here.
TypeValuePopulationAssessed byOpinion
ADI0.5 mg/kg bw/dayconsumersEFSA ANS2015
ADI0.5 mg/kg bw/dayconsumersEFSA FEEDAP2013
ADI0.5 mg/kg bw/dayconsumersEFSAnot identified in the dataset

Evidence and how bodies read it

Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial

McCann D, Barrett A, Cooper A, Crumpler D, Dalen L, Grimshaw K, et al.. The Lancet. 2007 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61306-3

Design
RCT
Model
human
Dose
Two mixtures of four synthetic colours plus sodium benzoate, at doses chosen to reflect typical UK intakes, given in a drink; challenge and placebo periods.
Endpoint
Global hyperactivity aggregate, combining teacher and parent ratings with a computerised attention test.
Funding
UK Food Standards Agency

What it found. Reported a small increase in the composite hyperactivity measure in 3-year-olds and 8/9-year-olds during the additive-challenge periods compared with placebo. The authors described the effects as modest and variable between individuals.

Limitations. The additives were given as mixtures, so the result cannot be attributed to any single colour or to the benzoate. Effect sizes were small relative to the spread between children, adherence differed between age groups, and the trial measured behaviour over short challenge periods rather than long-term outcomes.

How different bodies read the evidence

Positions are paraphrased in each body's own framing. Where they differ, both stand; this site does not adjudicate between them.

  1. EFSA 2008

    Judged the trial to provide limited evidence of a small effect on activity and attention in some children, but held that the mixtures tested did not allow any effect to be attributed to an individual additive, and that the findings did not warrant changing the acceptable daily intakes.

    Action taken: Left intake limits unchanged

    Source document

  2. European Union (legislature) 2008

    Took the same evidence as grounds for a consumer-information measure rather than a change in permitted levels, requiring foods containing these colours to carry the statement that they 'may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children'.

    Action taken: Imposed a mandatory warning statement while leaving the additives authorised

    Source document

Sources for this page

  • gsfa retrieved 2026-09-07

Full licence terms and publisher details on Sources. How this page is built and updated: Method.

Machine-readable:/api/v1/additives/quinoline-yellow.json