also: Mixed carotenes · Carotene · Provitamin A · CI Food Orange 5
Beta-carotene, the orange in carrots, used as a colour in drinks, spreads and cheese. A 2026 French study linked the added colour to 41% more breast cancer.
Scan a barcode to check a food for beta-carotene. NutraSafe Pro · £6.99/month · iPhone and Android
Wheat Flour, Sugar, Concentrated Butter (27%) (Cows' Milk, Colour: Beta-carotene), Free Range Egg (24%), Cows' Milk, Salt.
High-dose beta-carotene supplements are linked to more lung cancer in people who smoke, and regulators advise smokers to avoid them.
UK supermarket foods that declare E160a: 2,211 of the 43,325 we checked (5.1%)
Counted by its code or its name in the ingredient list.
Counted by NutraSafe from UK supermarket ingredient lists, September 2026. How we counted
Why it’s worth knowing. High-dose beta-carotene supplements are linked to more lung cancer in people who smoke, and regulators advise smokers to avoid them. A 2026 French study also linked beta-carotene added as a colour to more cancer, including breast cancer.
Beta-carotene is the pigment that makes carrots, sweet potatoes and many orange or yellow plants their colour. As an additive it is either extracted from carrots, palm fruit oil, algae or a fungus, or made synthetically. All of these carry the code E160a. The body can turn it into vitamin A.
It gives food a golden to deep orange colour. In the gut, some of it is turned into vitamin A, less efficiently than vitamin A from animal foods.
Margarine and butter blends, soft drinks and fruit-flavoured drinks, cheese, yoghurt, custard, cake mixes, sweets, snacks and some ready meals. UK labels call it colour (E160a), colour (beta-carotene) or colour (carotenes).
The NutriNet-Santé study followed 105,260 French adults for more than seven years and tracked the colours in what they ate. People with higher intake of beta-carotene as an added colour (E160a) had 16% more cancer overall and 41% more breast cancer. This is one observational study. It is about the added colour, not carrots and other vegetables.
Among 105,260 French adults followed from 2009 to 2023, higher intake of beta-carotene as a food colour (E160a) was linked to a 16% higher risk of cancer overall and a 41% higher risk of breast cancer.
Two large randomised trials, ATBC and CARET, found that smokers taking 20 to 30mg of beta-carotene a day had more lung cancer and more deaths than those on a dummy pill. CARET found 28% more lung cancer and 17% more deaths.
Male smokers given 20mg of beta-carotene a day for a median of six years had 18% more lung cancer than those on a dummy pill.
Smokers and asbestos workers given 30mg of beta-carotene plus vitamin A a day had 28% more lung cancer and 17% more deaths overall, and the trial was stopped 21 months early.
Pooling trials, beta-carotene supplements were linked to 24% more lung cancer in current smokers.
In 2024 they advised smokers to avoid supplements containing it.
Reviewers set a condition: intake from the colour and supplements together should stay within what a normal diet gives, around 5 to 10mg a day.
Reviewers stated that smokers should avoid food supplements containing beta-carotene.
In 2019 the international committee withdrew its earlier daily limit for synthetic beta-carotene. A limit for the whole population has to cover heavy smokers, and the risk data from smokers made it impossible to set one level for everyone. The committee said the data needed may never be collected, for ethical reasons.
The international committee withdrew its earlier group limit for synthetic beta-carotene (up to 5mg per kg of body weight), because a limit covering the whole population must include heavy smokers, whose risk is raised.
Eating a lot of beta-carotene for a long time can tint the skin yellow or orange, especially the palms, soles and around the nose. Unlike jaundice, the whites of the eyes stay white.
Carotenaemia happens with long-term high beta-carotene intake, roughly 20 to 50mg a day from food.
The NutriNet-Santé study followed 108,723 French adults for about 8 years and tracked the colours in the packaged food they ate. People who ate the most beta-carotene as an added colour (E160a) were 44% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who ate little or none. It is about the added colour, not carrots and other vegetables. This is one observational study.
Among 108,723 French adults followed from 2009 to 2023, higher intake of beta-carotene as a food colour was linked to a 44% higher risk of type 2 diabetes (hazard ratio 1.44).
Daily limit. None set by European reviewers for colour use (2012). The international committee withdrew its earlier limit in 2019.
European reviewers advise people who smoke not to take supplements containing beta-carotene. To avoid it, look for colour (E160a), colour (beta-carotene) or colour (carotenes).
The research on beta-carotene divides by dose, by source and by whether someone smokes. Two large trials in the 1990s gave smokers 20 to 30mg a day as high-dose supplements and found more lung cancer and deaths, the opposite of the protection they were testing for. Regulators have flagged that signal rather than dismiss it, and declined to set one intake limit for everyone. The 2026 French study adds a link between beta-carotene added as a colour and more cancer, including 41% more breast cancer. It is one observational study, but it is about the additive itself.
No. E160a is approved in the UK in a wide range of foods and is on the Food Standards Agency's list.
High-dose supplements, 20 to 30mg a day, were linked to more lung cancer in smokers in two large trials, ATBC (1994) and CARET (1996), and regulators advise smokers not to take them. Separately, a 2026 French study linked higher intake of beta-carotene added as a colour to 16% more cancer overall and 41% more breast cancer.
Margarine, butter blends, soft drinks, fruit juices, cheese, yoghurt, custard, cake mixes, sweets, snacks and some ready meals. Look for colour (E160a), colour (beta-carotene) or colour (carotenes).
The pigment itself is vegan, whether taken from plants, algae or a fungus, or made synthetically. But some beta-carotene preparations are carried in gelatine, and the label will not say. Look for a vegan certification if it matters to you.
Last reviewed: 9 November 2026
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