Food colours and additives

Colours and additives help make and preserve food and drink products, but you must only use them as authorised and within legal limits to avoid health risks and enforcement.

Additives in food and drink products

Food additives are substances added to food for a specific technological purpose during manufacture, processing or storage. They include:

• antioxidants - to protect fats and oils from going rancid
• colours - to replace or enhance natural colour
• emulsifiers, stabilisers, gelling agents and thickeners - to help ingredients mix
• flavour enhancers - to bring out flavour without adding a taste of their own
• preservatives - to keep food safe for longer
• sweeteners - to replace sugar in certain foods

Additives must be authorised for use in particular foods and used within legal limits. Once authorised, additives are given E numbers, which are used in the UK, EU and associated countries to show that they have passed safety checks for particular uses.

If you use food additives, you must:

• only use additives that are approved for the category of food you make
• use additives within the legal maximum levels
• label additives correctly in the ingredients list, with their function and name or E number
• keep records from your suppliers that show additives are approved and used correctly

Under the Windsor Framework, Northern Ireland continues to apply EU food additives law. A list of approved additives is included in Regulation 1333/2008. You can search the Food and Feed Information Portal Database to see the list of additives approved for use in food in the EU and their conditions of use.

Great Britain has its own but closely aligned GB regime for food additives. There is some flexibility for GB-approved additives used in eligible goods moved under the Northern Ireland retail movement scheme.

Labelling rules for food additives

If you use additives in your food and drink products, you must:

• make sure any prepacked food you supply to caterers or consumers includes all additives in the ingredients list
• list additives in the ingredients with their functional class (for example, ‘preservative’ or ‘colour’) and their specific name or E number

Extra labelling rules apply to some additives. For example:

• foods containing certain polyols must carry a warning that excessive consumption may have a laxative effect
• foods containing aspartame or aspartame‑acesulfame salt must state that they contain a source of phenylalanine

These warnings are especially important for people with conditions such as phenylketonuria (PKU).

Colours in food and drink products

Food colours are additives used to change or strengthen the colour of food and drink. They are used to make products look consistent and more appealing. For example, colour additives can:

• mask natural colour variations
• replace colour lost in storage or processing
• make the food appear more appetising

Only approved food colours can be used in food across the EU and the UK. Unauthorised substances, including industrial dyes like Sudan dyes, butter yellow or toluidine red, are prohibited due to a lack of safety assessments.

Approved food colours can be used in both commercial and domestic food preparation. They can be either natural or synthetic (artificial).

If you use food colours, you must:

• only use colours that are approved for use in that type of food
• follow any legal limits on how much colour you can use
• label colours correctly in the ingredients list, with their function and name or E number
• follow the extra labelling rules for certain colours linked to hyperactivity in children

Check out the full list of permitted food colours in the EU.

Food colours and hyperactivity in children

Research has suggested a link between consuming certain food colours and hyperactivity in children. These colours include:

• sunset yellow FCF (E110)
• quinoline yellow (E104)
• carmoisine (E122)
• allura red (E129)
• tartrazine (E102)
• ponceau 4R (E124)

If you use any of these colours in food or drink products (except alcoholic drinks above 1.2% ABV), you must include a warning label on the packaging that says: 'May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children'. You should also check if your suppliers - including those overseas - use these colours to ensure proper labelling.

If you use any of these additives, the FSA suggests that you consider reformulating or using alternatives, especially if your products are aimed at children.