Jurisdictions
Every additive page shows the same jurisdictions, including those with nothing to show, because leaving one out invites the wrong conclusion. What an absence means, though, differs completely between them: one runs a closed list, another permits substances with no listing at all, and a third keeps most of its additives on a register this site does not read. These pages say which is which.
- Australia and New Zealand351 of 1189
Australia and New Zealand share one instrument, the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, so they are one row here rather than two. Schedule 15 lists the substances that may be used as food additives and the classes of food each may be used in, with maximum levels; Schedule 16 groups additives so that a permission can be given to a whole class, such as the colourings permitted to a maximum level.
- Canada390 of 1189
Canada runs a positive list, published as fifteen Lists of Permitted Food Additives. The Food and Drug Regulations permit a food additive only as a list sets out, and the lists are incorporated into those Regulations by reference, so the published tables are the law rather than guidance about it.
- European Union398 of 1189
The European Union runs a closed positive list. Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 permits a food additive only where Annex II lists it for that category of food, at the conditions the entry states; Annex III does the same for additives used in other additives, enzymes, flavourings and nutrients. Purity and identity are set separately by Regulation (EU) No 231/2012.
- Great Britain394 of 1189
Great Britain — England, Scotland and Wales — kept the EU regime as assimilated law after leaving the European Union, and has since diverged from it in two ways: the EU has amended its Annex II and Great Britain has not followed every change, and since 1 April 2025 Great Britain authorises additives by a different procedure.
- Japan307 of 1189
Japan prohibits the sale, manufacture, import or use of any additive other than one that has been designated, and the designated additives are listed in Appended Table 1 to the Regulations for Enforcement of the Food Sanitation Act. Since April 2024 designation is administered by the Consumer Affairs Agency.
- South Korea462 of 1189
South Korea permits a food additive only if the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (식품의약품안전처, MFDS) has designated it. The Food Sanitation Act (식품위생법), Article 7, has the Ministry set the standards and specifications for food additives by public notification, and the designated additives are listed in that notification, the Standards and Specifications for Food Additives (식품첨가물의 기준 및 규격).
- United States711 of 1189
The United States does not run a single list of permitted food additives. A substance may be used in food on several different legal footings, and which one applies decides what a reader can find out about it.
- Codex Alimentarius386 of 1189
Codex is not a law and permits nothing. The Codex Alimentarius is a set of international standards adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which FAO and WHO run jointly; a country may adopt a standard, use it as a reference, or ignore it. It matters because national rules are often written against it and because it gives every additive an INS number that different countries' lists can be compared through.
8 regulators today. A country's absence from this site says nothing about its rules. See also the comparisons, the method, and names this site could not match.