What a label must say
Permitting an additive and saying nothing more is the usual case. For a small number, the law goes further and dictates words the pack must carry: a warning, a declaration, a statement beside the name of the food. Those obligations are collected here, quoted from the instruments that impose them.
A required sentence is a fact about the regulation, not a verdict on the substance. Every additive below is authorised where the statement is required. This site does not say what a colour does or does not do; it says what a label is obliged to print and which instrument obliges it. The wording quoted is the law's, not this site's.
European Union
Six colours oblige a warning on the food
‘name or E number of the colour(s)’: may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.
When: A food containing any of six colours must carry this statement.
The wording is fixed by the Annex and names the colour that triggered it. It is a labelling obligation attached to the additive, not a finding by this site about what any colour does; the Annex was added following the 2007 Southampton study and the Commission's response to it. All six remain authorised in the European Union and Great Britain.
Except:
- Foods where the colour was used for health or other marking on meat products, or for stamping or decorative colouring on eggshells.
- Beverages containing more than 1.2 % alcohol by volume.
Applies to: FD&C Yellow No. 5, Quinoline yellow, FD&C Yellow No. 6, Azorubine (Carmoisine), Ponceau 4R (Cochineal red A), FD&C Red No. 40
A sweetener changes the name of the food
‘with sweetener(s)’, or ‘with sugar(s) and sweetener(s)’ where the food also contains added sugar. The statement accompanies the name of the food.
When: Any food containing an authorised sweetener.
This one appears beside the name of the food rather than in the ingredients list, so it is visible without turning the pack over.
Applies to: every authorised sweetener.
Aspartame must declare a source of phenylalanine
‘contains a source of phenylalanine’ where the sweetener is named in the ingredients; ‘contains aspartame (a source of phenylalanine)’ where it appears only as an E number.
When: Any food containing aspartame or aspartame-acesulfame salt.
The declaration exists for people with phenylketonuria, who cannot metabolise phenylalanine. It says the food contains a source of it; it is not a warning to anybody else.
Applies to: Aspartame, Aspartame-acesulfame salt
More than a tenth polyol obliges a laxative statement
‘excessive consumption may produce laxative effects’.
When: A food containing more than 10 % added polyols.
The threshold is a proportion of the food, so a polyol low in an ingredients list does not trigger it. Polyols are the sugar alcohols used for bulk sweetening: sorbitol, maltitol, xylitol and the rest.
Applies to: Sorbitol, Mannitol, Isomalt (Hydrogenated isomaltulose), Maltitol, Maltitol syrup, Lactitol, Xylitol, Erythritol, Polyglycitol syrup
Table-top sweeteners carry their own warnings
For polyols, ‘excessive consumption may induce laxative effects’. For aspartame or aspartame-acesulfame salt, ‘contains a source of phenylalanine’.
When: A table-top sweetener — the tablets, powders and drops sold to be added by the person eating.
These are set by the additives regulation itself rather than by the labelling regulation, and they apply to the sweetener as a product. The name of a table-top sweetener must also include the sweetener it is made with.
Applies to: Aspartame, Aspartame-acesulfame salt, Sorbitol, Maltitol, Xylitol, Lactitol, Mannitol, Erythritol
A packaging gas is declared as an atmosphere, not an ingredient
‘packaged in a protective atmosphere’.
When: A food whose durability has been extended using an authorised packaging gas.
The gases are authorised additives, but they do not appear in the ingredients list. This statement is what tells a reader they were used.
Applies to: Argon, Helium, Nitrogen, Nitrous oxide, Oxygen, Carbon dioxide
Liquorice above a threshold must be declared, and above a higher one warned about
‘contains liquorice’ at 100 mg/kg or 10 mg/l of glycyrrhizinic acid. At 4 g/kg in confectionery, or 50 mg/l in beverages (300 mg/l above 1.2 % alcohol), ‘contains liquorice – people suffering from hypertension should avoid excessive consumption’.
When: Confectionery or beverages containing glycyrrhizinic acid or its ammonium salt, whether added as such or as the liquorice plant.
The statement is required immediately after the ingredients list, unless liquorice is already named there or in the name of the food.
Applies to: Licorice and licorice derivatives
High-caffeine drinks and foods with caffeine added
For beverages above 150 mg/l, ‘High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women’, with the content in mg per 100 ml. For other foods with caffeine added for a physiological purpose, ‘Contains caffeine. Not recommended for children or pregnant women’.
When: Beverages other than those based on coffee or tea whose name says so, and foods with caffeine added deliberately.
The statement goes in the same field of vision as the name of the food.
Applies to: Caffeine
Additives are named by what they do, then by which one
The name of the functional category, followed by the specific name or the E number: “Preservative: sodium benzoate”, “Colour: E150d”.
When: Every additive in an ingredients list belonging to one of twenty-six named categories.
This is the rule that makes an ingredients list readable at all, and the reason a label may give a name in one place and a number in another — the manufacturer chooses. Where an additive belongs to more than one category, the one named is the one appropriate to its principal function in that food, which is why the same substance can be a “colour” on one pack and an “antioxidant” on the next.
Great Britain
Six colours oblige a warning on the food
‘name or E number of the colour(s)’: may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.
When: A food containing any of six colours must carry this statement.
The wording is fixed by the Annex and names the colour that triggered it. It is a labelling obligation attached to the additive, not a finding by this site about what any colour does; the Annex was added following the 2007 Southampton study and the Commission's response to it. All six remain authorised in the European Union and Great Britain.
Except:
- Foods where the colour was used for health or other marking on meat products, or for stamping or decorative colouring on eggshells.
- Beverages containing more than 1.2 % alcohol by volume.
Applies to: FD&C Yellow No. 5, Quinoline yellow, FD&C Yellow No. 6, Azorubine (Carmoisine), Ponceau 4R (Cochineal red A), FD&C Red No. 40
A sweetener changes the name of the food
‘with sweetener(s)’, or ‘with sugar(s) and sweetener(s)’ where the food also contains added sugar. The statement accompanies the name of the food.
When: Any food containing an authorised sweetener.
This one appears beside the name of the food rather than in the ingredients list, so it is visible without turning the pack over.
Applies to: every authorised sweetener.
Aspartame must declare a source of phenylalanine
‘contains a source of phenylalanine’ where the sweetener is named in the ingredients; ‘contains aspartame (a source of phenylalanine)’ where it appears only as an E number.
When: Any food containing aspartame or aspartame-acesulfame salt.
The declaration exists for people with phenylketonuria, who cannot metabolise phenylalanine. It says the food contains a source of it; it is not a warning to anybody else.
Applies to: Aspartame, Aspartame-acesulfame salt
More than a tenth polyol obliges a laxative statement
‘excessive consumption may produce laxative effects’.
When: A food containing more than 10 % added polyols.
The threshold is a proportion of the food, so a polyol low in an ingredients list does not trigger it. Polyols are the sugar alcohols used for bulk sweetening: sorbitol, maltitol, xylitol and the rest.
Applies to: Sorbitol, Mannitol, Isomalt (Hydrogenated isomaltulose), Maltitol, Maltitol syrup, Lactitol, Xylitol, Erythritol, Polyglycitol syrup
Table-top sweeteners carry their own warnings
For polyols, ‘excessive consumption may induce laxative effects’. For aspartame or aspartame-acesulfame salt, ‘contains a source of phenylalanine’.
When: A table-top sweetener — the tablets, powders and drops sold to be added by the person eating.
These are set by the additives regulation itself rather than by the labelling regulation, and they apply to the sweetener as a product. The name of a table-top sweetener must also include the sweetener it is made with.
Applies to: Aspartame, Aspartame-acesulfame salt, Sorbitol, Maltitol, Xylitol, Lactitol, Mannitol, Erythritol
A packaging gas is declared as an atmosphere, not an ingredient
‘packaged in a protective atmosphere’.
When: A food whose durability has been extended using an authorised packaging gas.
The gases are authorised additives, but they do not appear in the ingredients list. This statement is what tells a reader they were used.
Applies to: Argon, Helium, Nitrogen, Nitrous oxide, Oxygen, Carbon dioxide
Liquorice above a threshold must be declared, and above a higher one warned about
‘contains liquorice’ at 100 mg/kg or 10 mg/l of glycyrrhizinic acid. At 4 g/kg in confectionery, or 50 mg/l in beverages (300 mg/l above 1.2 % alcohol), ‘contains liquorice – people suffering from hypertension should avoid excessive consumption’.
When: Confectionery or beverages containing glycyrrhizinic acid or its ammonium salt, whether added as such or as the liquorice plant.
The statement is required immediately after the ingredients list, unless liquorice is already named there or in the name of the food.
Applies to: Licorice and licorice derivatives
High-caffeine drinks and foods with caffeine added
For beverages above 150 mg/l, ‘High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women’, with the content in mg per 100 ml. For other foods with caffeine added for a physiological purpose, ‘Contains caffeine. Not recommended for children or pregnant women’.
When: Beverages other than those based on coffee or tea whose name says so, and foods with caffeine added deliberately.
The statement goes in the same field of vision as the name of the food.
Applies to: Caffeine
Additives are named by what they do, then by which one
The name of the functional category, followed by the specific name or the E number: “Preservative: sodium benzoate”, “Colour: E150d”.
When: Every additive in an ingredients list belonging to one of twenty-six named categories.
This is the rule that makes an ingredients list readable at all, and the reason a label may give a name in one place and a number in another — the manufacturer chooses. Where an additive belongs to more than one category, the one named is the one appropriate to its principal function in that food, which is why the same substance can be a “colour” on one pack and an “antioxidant” on the next.
United States
FD&C Yellow No. 5 must be named, not called a colour
“Foods for human use that contain FD&C Yellow No. 5, including butter, cheese, and ice cream, shall specifically declare the presence of FD&C Yellow No. 5 by listing the color additive as FD&C Yellow No. 5 among the list of ingredients.”
When: Any food containing the colour.
This is the only colour in part 74 that must be declared by name in food. A generic “artificial color” will not do. The same substance is E 102 in Europe, where it is one of the six that oblige the activity and attention statement — so the two regimes single out the same colour for different obligations.
Applies to: FD&C Yellow No. 5
What is not here
Allergen declaration is a separate regime and has its own page: an additive made from a substance on the EU allergen list is marked at allergen origin, and whether a food must declare it depends on what its additive was actually made from.
Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and Japan all set out how additives are named in an ingredients list, and none of them attaches a warning to a particular additive in the way the European rules do. Where that is wrong, it is a gap in this page rather than a finding; an absence here is not evidence that a country requires nothing.
Reading a label is easier with the label lookup, which resolves names and E numbers to pages. See also the glossary and the method.