Last reviewed: 11 May 2026
The workhorse emulsifier in UK bread, margarine and ice cream.
E471 is mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids — an emulsifier produced by chemically modifying fats (from plant oils such as soy, palm, sunflower or rapeseed, or from animal fats such as beef tallow or pork lard) to bind water and oil together. It is the most widely used emulsifier in UK packaged food: present in nearly every loaf of sliced bread, most margarines and most ice creams. EFSA has not set a numerical ADI; the molecules are structurally similar to digestion intermediates produced naturally when the body breaks down dietary fat. The point a UK consumer most often wants to know about is the source: UK labels rarely specify whether the E471 in a product is plant- or animal-derived, which matters for vegetarian, vegan, halal and kosher diets.
E471 can be derived from plant oils or from animal fats including pork lard or beef tallow. UK labels are not required to identify the source. Practical signals on a pack:
Natural dietary fats are triglycerides — a glycerol backbone with three fatty acid chains attached. The pancreatic enzyme lipase breaks triglycerides down during digestion to monoglycerides (one fatty acid) and diglycerides (two), which are then absorbed across the intestinal lining. E471 is the industrial form of those same partial-glyceride intermediates: produced by reacting a fat or oil with extra glycerol under heat and a base catalyst, yielding a mixture of mono- and diglycerides in commercially useful proportions. The fatty-acid mix in the product depends on the starting fat — palm-derived E471 has a different fatty-acid profile from soy- or tallow-derived E471, even though the additive code is the same.
The functional benefit is emulsification: the partial glyceride is part hydrophilic (the free hydroxyl groups on the glycerol) and part lipophilic (the fatty acid tail), so the molecule sits at the interface between water and fat phases and prevents them separating. That's what makes bread crumb soft and uniform, keeps ice-cream emulsions stable through freezing and thawing, and prevents margarine spreads from weeping water.
Label-wise, it appears as E471, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, or occasionally as glycerol monostearate or similar specific names when a single fraction is used.
EFSA's re-evaluation of the mono- and diglyceride emulsifier family concluded that no numerical ADI was needed; the molecules are metabolised through the same pathways as ordinary dietary fats, broken into glycerol and free fatty acids that are absorbed and used as energy substrates or for membrane synthesis. No major toxicological concerns were flagged at use levels permitted in food. The same family has been used in industrial bread-making since the 1930s and is among the longest-evaluated emulsifier classes in food law.
A body of more recent work — most prominently the Chassaing and Gewirtz lab's mouse studies — has examined whether widely-used emulsifiers (notably polysorbates and carboxymethylcellulose, less specifically E471) may alter the gut microbiome and intestinal mucus layer when consumed at relatively high levels. The research has triggered ongoing investigation but has not produced clinical-trial-level evidence in humans that the mono- and diglyceride family at dietary levels does the same. EFSA's position has not changed in light of this work; the question is open but not resolved in either direction.
The production of E471 can introduce trace amounts of trans fatty acids (typically below 1%, well below the UK and EU regulatory ceiling of 2g trans fat per 100g of fat in food). At typical use levels in a slice of bread or a teaspoon of margarine, the absolute trans-fat contribution from E471 is negligible — far below the level at which population-level cardiovascular harm has been demonstrated for industrially produced trans fats from partial hydrogenation.
Reactions to E471 itself are rare and not part of the UK's 14 mandatory allergen list. The relevant exception is the source allergen — if E471 is derived from soy, a soy-allergic individual may need to treat it as a potential soy source. UK labels are not currently required to flag this on the E-number alone; people managing severe food allergies should not rely on the E-number labelling to identify source allergens.
E471 is so widespread that an additive-free supermarket trolley is genuinely difficult — most commercial bread, ice cream and margarine contains it. If you don't want to avoid it but want to identify source-appropriate options, certification logos (Vegetarian Society, Vegan Society, halal, kosher) are the practical short-cut. If you want to avoid the additive itself, the category to switch is bakery: artisan and traditional sourdough bread (flour, water, salt, yeast) and freshly baked baguettes don't use E471. The trade-off is shelf life — additive-free bread goes stale in one to two days, packaged sliced bread stays soft for around a week.
UK and EU: authorised as E471 with no numerical ADI ("quantum satis" — used at the level needed for the technological purpose). Listed in Annex II of Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008.
United States: FDA Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) under 21 CFR 184.1505.
The closely related E472a–f family is E471 modified with an additional acid group — acetic (E472a), lactic (E472b), citric (E472c), tartaric (E472d), monoacetyl- and diacetyl-tartaric (E472e — DATEM), or mixed (E472f). DATEM is particularly common in UK bread. The 472 family carries similar regulatory status to E471 but offers different specific functional properties.
Scan any UK pack in NutraSafe and we surface E471 alongside the rest of the additives, with vegetarian/vegan and halal certification flags surfaced where the manufacturer has supplied them.
Get NutraSafe on the App StoreLast updated: 11 May 2026
Free to log up to 25 foods/day · NutraSafe Pro £3.99/month for AI Coach, allergen warning detail and full reaction history.