Additive names by language

The European Union publishes its list of authorised additives in every official language, so the same substance has 23 official names. All 9,740of them are here, exactly as the Official Journal prints them.

A label in Vienna says Citronensäure, one in Athens κιτρικό οξύ, one in Helsinki sitruunahappo. They are the same additive, E 330, and each of those words is the EU's own, not a translation made here. These pages are English throughout — only the names are in another language, because only the names come from the regulator.

What these are, and are not

They are the names Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 and the specifications in Regulation (EU) No 231/2012 carry in each language version. A name printed on a pack sold in that country is normally one of these, or the E number on its own, which the regulation permits instead.

They are not a complete vocabulary of the language. A manufacturer may use an ordinary name the regulation does not list — and a trade name is not on this site at all unless a regulator printed it. Nor is a language's coverage complete: the EU list names the additives it authorises, so a substance permitted only in the United States or Japan has no EU name to print.

Irish is absent. The Official Journal publishes Annex II in Irish, but the table of additive names inside it is printed in English, so there are no Irish names to take. Inventing them is not something this site does.

Reading a label in one of these languages? Paste it in — the lookup matches every one of these names, and runs in your browser.