# Food Additive Index

> 764 food additives: what each one is, every name it appears under on a
> label, and where it is and is not legal. Compiled from primary regulatory sources
> with a citation and a retrieval date on every fact.

https://foodadditiveindex.com

## What this dataset is

- 764 additives, 10901 regulatory provisions across 2 jurisdictions
- 18303 recorded names, including E numbers, INS numbers, CAS numbers and label synonyms
- 266 Codex food categories
- 148 hazard reference values (ADI, TDI) from assessing bodies

## Editorial position

This site reports what regulators permit and what assessments found. It does not
rate additives, does not rank them for safety, and does not give health advice.
Where regulators read the same evidence differently, both readings appear,
attributed, and the site draws no conclusion of its own.

One distinction matters more than any other here, and it is the one most often
got wrong: **a substance that is "not listed" in a jurisdiction is not the same
as a substance that is "prohibited" there.** Absence from a permitted list means
the regulator has not authorised it for that use; it is not a finding against the
substance. The two are separate values in this dataset and must not be conflated
when quoting it.

## API

Stable JSON, one document per additive:

    https://foodadditiveindex.com/api/v1/additives/{slug}.json

Fields may be added within v1; none will be removed or change meaning.

## Citation

Cite a page as: Food Additive Index, "<additive name>", https://foodadditiveindex.com/additives/<slug>,
retrieved <date>. Please carry through the retrieval date shown on the page —
regulations change, and a status without a date is not a fact.

## Key pages

- https://foodadditiveindex.com/additives — the full index
- https://foodadditiveindex.com/e-numbers — E-number index
- https://foodadditiveindex.com/prohibited-in-the-us — substances prohibited under 21 CFR 189
- https://foodadditiveindex.com/sources — every source, licence and retrieval date
- https://foodadditiveindex.com/about/method — how this is sourced, cited and updated

## Sources

- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21 (U.S. Government Publishing Office / National Archives) — Public domain, retrieved 2026-09-07
- Editorial content (Food Additive Index) — Site content, retrieved 2026-09-08
- Codex General Standard for Food Additives (CXS 192-1995) (Codex Alimentarius Commission (FAO/WHO)) — FAO terms — non-commercial use with attribution, retrieved 2026-09-07
- EFSA OpenFoodTox (2026-04-30) (European Food Safety Authority) — CC BY-ND 4.0, retrieved 2026-09-07
- PubChem (PUG-REST) (National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine) — Public domain, retrieved 2026-09-07