E-numbers are simply the code numbers used to identify food additives that have been shown to be safe and officially approved for use in food across the EU.

Blocks of numbers are allocated to specific groups of additives. For example, the colours are all in the E100 series (eg E150 caramel and E162 beetroot red); the preservatives are in the E200 series (eg E202 potassium sorbate and E211 sodium benzoate); the antioxidants are in the E300 series and so on.

All of the currently EU approved food additives are listed below by additive type, E number and additive name.

You can use the search facility by typing in an additive name or an E number, or navigate to all additives within a particular category by typing in the category name, eg preservative.

Each column can be sorted by clicking on the heading.

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