UK food law, checked against the FSA list
Which E numbers are banned in the UK? Almost none of the ones you are asking about.
Tartrazine, sunset yellow, allura red, carmoisine, ponceau 4R, brilliant blue and Green S are all approved for use in Great Britain. So is titanium dioxide. The colours that generate the most alarm are, with very few exceptions, legal here.
The Food Standards Agency publishes the approved list, and it runs to 327 codes. We hold a researched page for 454 additives. Checking one against the other: 338 are on the list, 4 are enzymes regulated separately, and 112 are not approved for food use in Great Britain.
Checked against the GOV.UK approved additives list on 20 September 2026 · Aaron Keen, founder, NutraSafe
A warning label is not a ban
This is where nearly all the confusion starts. Six colours must carry a warning on the pack in the UK. Every one of them is legal.
Any food or drink containing one of those six has to say it “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children”. That wording follows the 2007 Southampton study and the FSA's response to it, which is why they are known as the Southampton Six.
The requirement did its work commercially rather than legally: many UK manufacturers reformulated to avoid printing it, so the six became rare on shelves without ever being prohibited. A shopper who notices they have vanished from most products reasonably concludes they were banned. They were not.
The same applies to E133 brilliant blue FCF, which people search for as banned more often than almost any other code. It is approved in Great Britain.
“Not approved” and “banned” are different things
UK food law works from a permitted list. An additive is legal only if it appears on it, which means absence covers three quite different situations.
Once allowed here, then removed. E128 Red 2G was banned in the UK in August 2007 after EFSA found it converts to aniline in the body. E203 calcium sorbate went in 2018.
Never on the GB list at all. E107 Yellow 2G and E130 indanthrene blue are in this group. They are not prohibited by name, they simply were never permitted.
Enzymes such as E1100 amylase are regulated as processing aids rather than additives, so they are absent from the additive list without being restricted. Four of ours sit here.
The 112, by what they do
Every additive we hold a page for that does not appear on the FSA's Great Britain approved list.
| Group | Count | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Colours | 15 | E107, E116, E125, E126, E128, E130 and more |
| Preservatives | 14 | E203, E209, E216, E217, E225, E230 and more |
| Antioxidants and acidity regulators | 14 | E303, E311, E312, E328, E342, E344 and more |
| Emulsifiers, stabilisers and thickeners | 18 | E408, E411, E419, E430, E431, E441 and more |
| Acidity regulators and anti-caking agents | 12 | E510, E519, E534, E542, E544, E545 and more |
| Flavour enhancers | 3 | E642, E647, E648 |
| Glazing agents, gases and sweeteners | 22 | E906, E908, E910, E912, E913, E915 and more |
| Starches, enzymes and others | 14 | E1000, E1106, E1108, E1109, E1110, E1111 and more |
The colours are the group people ask about, so here they are in full. Note how few of them are names anyone recognises, which is rather the point. A different question people bring to the same list is origin rather than legality: which E numbers are animal-derived is a short answer, and eight is the number.
| Code | Name | Status in Great Britain |
|---|---|---|
| E107 | Yellow 2G | E107 Yellow 2G is not listed as a permitted food additive in the UK |
| E116 | Brilliant Yellow | E116 has not been banned |
| E125 | Ponceau SX | E125 (Ponceau SX) is not on the UK FSA register of authorised food additives and is absent from the permitted colours |
| E126 | Ponceau 6R | Ponceau 6R was removed from the EU's permitted food colour list under Directive 94/36/EC in 1994, based on the EU's Sc |
| E128 | Red 2G | Red 2G was banned in the UK from August 2007, following a European Food Safety Authority opinion that it converts to a |
| E130 | Indanthrene blue RS | E130 is not a permitted food additive in the UK |
| E143 | Fast Green FCF | E143 (Fast Green FCF) is not an authorised food additive in the UK |
| E152 | Black 7984 | E152 (Black 7984) is not listed in the UK FSA Register of Food Additive Authorisations |
| E154 | Brown FK | E154 is not permitted in UK food products |
| E160F | E160f | E160f is not a permitted food additive in the UK or the EU |
| E161H | Zeaxanthin | It is not banned outright, but it is not authorised as a food colour additive in the UK or EU |
| E164 | Saffron | E164 is not listed as a banned food additive, but it also does not appear in the UK FSA's current approved food additi |
| E166 | Sandalwood | E166 is not on the UK FSA approved-additives list, which means it is not permitted for use in food sold in the UK |
| E181 | Tannic acid | E181 is not a UK-authorised food additive E-number |
| E182 | Orcein | E182 (orcein, also called orchil) is not a permitted food additive in the UK or EU |
Titanium dioxide is the one almost everyone gets wrong
Search for E171 titanium dioxide and you will be told repeatedly that it is banned in the UK. For Great Britain that is not correct.
GOV.UK states that titanium dioxide has not been permitted in food in Northern Ireland since 7 February 2022, because Northern Ireland follows EU food law under the Windsor Framework. It remains on the approved list for England, Scotland and Wales. The EU banned it; Great Britain did not follow.
It is the clearest example of why a post-Brexit answer has to say which part of the UK it is about. An additive can be legal in Cardiff and not in Belfast.
Why you rarely see any of this on a pack
Even where an additive is present and approved, UK labels usually print its name rather than its code. Across 21,077 supermarket own-brand products in our database, about one in 200 prints a literal E number, once Marks and Spencer is set aside. What E numbers are covers that in full.
So checking a pack for banned E numbers is close to the least reliable way to read a label. “Colour: Ponceau 4R” and “E124” are the same declaration, and only one of them is searchable if you do not already know the name.
Related: the full E-number A to Z, the colours index, and which additives have real findings against them, which is a different question from whether they are legal.
What people ask us about banned E numbers
Are E numbers banned in the UK?
Most are not. The Food Standards Agency publishes an approved list for Great Britain running to 327 codes. Checking our 454 additive pages against it, 338 are on the list and 112 are not. Almost every additive a UK shopper meets on a pack is an approved one.
Which E numbers are banned in the UK?
The colours most people have in mind are not among them. E102 tartrazine, E104 quinoline yellow, E110 sunset yellow, E122 carmoisine, E124 ponceau 4R, E129 allura red, E133 brilliant blue and E142 Green S are all approved in Great Britain. Additives genuinely absent from the GB list include E128 Red 2G, banned here since August 2007, E143 Fast Green FCF, E152 Black 7984, E154 Brown FK, E216 and E217 propylparabens, and E924a potassium bromate.
Is tartrazine banned in the UK?
No. E102 tartrazine is on the FSA's approved list for Great Britain. It is one of the Southampton Six, so any food or drink containing it must carry the wording “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children”. A warning label is not a ban, and that distinction is where most of the confusion comes from.
Is E129 allura red banned in the UK?
No. E129 is approved in Great Britain and is one of the Southampton Six, so it carries the children's attention warning on the pack. It is the same dye sold in the United States as Red 40.
Is titanium dioxide E171 banned in the UK?
Not in Great Britain. GOV.UK states that titanium dioxide has not been permitted in food in Northern Ireland since 7 February 2022, because Northern Ireland follows EU food law, while it remains on the approved list for England, Scotland and Wales. Many sources say it is banned in the UK; for Great Britain that is wrong.
What is the difference between banned and not approved?
UK food law works from a permitted list, so an additive is legal only if it appears on it. Some of the 112 were once allowed and were withdrawn, such as E128 Red 2G in 2007 or E203 calcium sorbate in 2018. Others were never authorised here at all. A third group, including enzymes like E1100 amylase, is regulated under a separate regime rather than as additives, so absence from the additive list does not mean prohibited.
Do UK and EU additive rules still match after Brexit?
Not automatically. Great Britain keeps its own approved list, maintained by the Food Standards Agency, while the EU list is maintained separately with EFSA doing the safety assessment. Both started from the same assimilated law and have diverged since. Northern Ireland continues to follow the EU list, which is why titanium dioxide is treated differently there.
Check the pack in front of you instead
Legal and worth knowing about are two different questions, and the label answers neither on its own. Scan a UK barcode and NutraSafe matches what is declared, by name or by code, to the additive behind it and what the published evidence says.
Get NutraSafe on the App Store →Free to download. Naming each additive on a pack and what it does is a Pro feature.
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Last reviewed: 20 September 2026 · Source: the GOV.UK approved additives and E numbers list, 327 codes, published 25 June 2026, compared against NutraSafe's 454 additive pages. Northern Ireland follows the EU list and differs.