Food additives in European Union

European Commission / EFSA

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.

The list is a list of food additives. Flavourings, enzymes, processing aids, extraction solvents and added nutrients are regulated under their own instruments and never appear on it, so a substance absent from Annex II may still be lawfully used in food under another regime.

Northern Ireland applies the EU rules under the Windsor Framework, so for Northern Ireland this is the row to read, not Great Britain's.

What this index holds

398 of the 1189 substances on this site carry a European Union entry, across 18,137 provisions. Last retrieved 2026-10-18 from EU food additives (Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008), under CC BY 4.0. Conditions are given by food category, using the eu food categories of Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, Annex II, Part D.

What is read, and what is not

Read:

Not read:

What an empty row means

A page with no EU row means this site has matched no food use for the substance on the Union list. Because the list is closed, that usually means it may not be used as a food additive in the EU — but not always: it may be regulated under one of the instruments above, or listed only as part of a collective entry whose reach this site cannot confirm.

The instruments

Elsewhere

Compare the European Union with another regulator on the comparison pages, or read how the whole index is built in the method.