The EU and Australia and New Zealand
Food additives permitted in one and not the other — and what each gap actually means.
285 additives are permitted in both. 113 are permitted in the EU with no permission in Australia and New Zealand, none of them explicitly prohibited there. 66 are permitted in Australia and New Zealand with no permission in the EU, of which 1 is explicitly prohibited or removed there.
A missing permission is rarely a ban. Usually no one has applied, the substance is named or grouped differently, or it falls under a different law. Only the first two groups below — prohibited, and removed — record a regulator’s decision against a substance, and even those are decisions about legal status, not findings this site draws about safety.
Permitted in the EU, no permission in Australia and New Zealand
Possibly covered by a related listing in Australia and New Zealand 29
Australia and New Zealand lists a substance under the same number — often a group entry such as “E 322 Lecithins” where the other regulator lists a single form. This site cannot tell whether that listing covers this form, so these are not counted as absent.
Regulated outside the additives list in Australia and New Zealand 1
Every function regulators give these — flavouring, enzyme, nutrient, solvent or processing aid — is one Australia and New Zealand regulates under separate rules, so they would not be expected on its list of food additives. Their absence here says nothing about whether Australia and New Zealand permits them.
| Additive | Function | In European Union |
|---|---|---|
| Helium E939 | Processing aid | 68 provisions |
Not on Australia and New Zealand’s list 83
Australia and New Zealand permits food additives only where it lists them, and these are not listed. That is not a finding against the substance: usually no one has applied for authorisation there. It does mean they may not be used as food additives in Australia and New Zealand today.
Permitted in Australia and New Zealand, no permission in the EU
Removed from the EU’s list 1
The EU once permitted these and has removed them. The date and the instrument are on each additive’s page.
| Additive | Function | In Australia and New Zealand | In European Union |
|---|---|---|---|
| Titanium dioxide E171 | Colour | 47 provisions | Removed with effect from 7 February 2022. Instrument |
Possibly covered by a related listing in the EU 5
The EU lists a substance under the same number — often a group entry such as “E 322 Lecithins” where the other regulator lists a single form. This site cannot tell whether that listing covers this form, so these are not counted as absent.
| Additive | Function | In Australia and New Zealand | In European Union |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackcurrant extract INS 163(iii) | — | 47 provisions | Anthocyanins (E163) |
| Grape skin extract INS 163(ii) | Colour | 48 provisions | Anthocyanins (E163) |
| Magnesium phosphate INS 343(iii) | Acidity regulator | 55 provisions | Magnesium dihydrogen phosphate, Magnesium hydrogen phosphate, Magnesium phosphates (E343) |
| Quillaia extract type 2 INS 999(ii) | Emulsifier | 8 provisions | Quillaia extract (E999) |
| Quillaia extract type I INS 999(i) | Emulsifier | 8 provisions | Quillaia extract (E999) |
Regulated outside the additives list in the EU 1
Every function regulators give these — flavouring, enzyme, nutrient, solvent or processing aid — is one the EU regulates under separate rules, so they would not be expected on its list of food additives. Their absence here says nothing about whether the EU permits them.
| Additive | Function | In Australia and New Zealand |
|---|---|---|
| Caffeine | Flavouring agent | 1 provision |
Not on the EU’s list 59
The EU permits food additives only where it lists them, and these are not listed. That is not a finding against the substance: usually no one has applied for authorisation there. It does mean they may not be used as food additives in the EU today.
What this page is not
It is not a list of unsafe additives, and a regulator permitting something is not this site’s endorsement of it. Regulators reach different decisions on the same evidence, on different applications, and at different times. Each additive’s page shows every jurisdiction’s status with its citation, and where an assessing body has published a reading of the evidence, that reading, attributed.
Counts are of this site’s additive pages, which follow the regulators’ own listings: a group entry in one jurisdiction can correspond to several pages in another. Status as retrieved from each source; see Sources for dates.