UK food labels, explained
What are E numbers? And why UK packs rarely show them.
An E number is a code for a food additive approved for use in the UK and the EU. The E stands for Europe, and the number identifies one specific substance so it can be named on a label in any language. E300 is vitamin C. E621 is monosodium glutamate.
Here is the part that catches people out. UK labels are allowed to print the additive's name instead of its code, and almost all of them do. We checked 21,077 UK supermarket own-brand products in our database: setting Marks and Spencer aside, about one in 200 prints a literal E number in its ingredients list.
Written 20 September 2026 · Aaron Keen, founder, NutraSafe
What an E number actually is
An ingredient becomes an additive when it does a technological job in the food: colouring it, preserving it, holding it together, sweetening it. Once a substance has been assessed and approved for that use, it gets a number.
The system exists for labelling, not for warning. Before it, a label in France said one thing and a label in Greece said another for the same substance. A number is the same in every language, and it points at one defined chemical rather than a loose common name.
That is also why the codes feel sinister when they are not always sinister. E300 is ascorbic acid, which is vitamin C. E440 is pectin, the setting agent in jam, taken from fruit. E160a is beta-carotene, the pigment that makes carrots orange. All three are additives when they are added to do a job, and all three have codes.
It works the other way too. Plenty of ingredients worth knowing about carry no E number at all, because they are foods rather than additives: palm oil, glucose-fructose syrup, modified starch by some names. Reading a label for E numbers alone will miss them.
The first digit tells you the job
The series group additives by what the substance is there to do. A higher number does not mean a worse additive.
| Series | What it covers | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| E100s | Colours | Anything that adds or restores colour. Includes the six that carry a warning label. |
| E200s | Preservatives | Stop mould, yeast and bacteria growing. Sulphites and nitrites live here. |
| E300s | Antioxidants and acidity regulators | Stop fats going rancid and hold pH steady. E300 is vitamin C. |
| E400s | Emulsifiers, stabilisers, thickeners | Keep oil and water mixed and control texture. Most gums are here. |
| E500s | Acidity regulators and anti-caking agents | Raising agents and free-flow agents. E500 is bicarbonate of soda. |
| E600s | Flavour enhancers | Strengthen savoury taste. E621 is monosodium glutamate. |
| E900s | Sweeteners and glazing agents | Intense sweeteners and surface coatings. E951 is aspartame. |
| E1000s+ | Enzymes and other additives | Later additions that did not fit the original blocks. |
A suffix narrows it further. E160a, E160b and E160c are all in the carotenoid family but they are different substances: carotenes, annatto and paprika extract. A label naming one of them is not naming the others.
The series says nothing about where a substance comes from, which is why the question that follows is usually about origin rather than function: eight E numbers are always animal-derived and about six more depend on the manufacturer, while the rest are synthetic, mineral, plant or made by fermentation.
Our E-number A to Z has a page for each of the 454 additives we hold, including what it is, why it is used and what the published evidence says. The colours, sweeteners and preservatives indexes group them the way the series above does.
You will almost never see an E number on a UK pack
Share of own-brand products whose ingredients list prints a literal E number, rather than spelling the additive out by name. Measured 20 September 2026 across 21,077 products. Bars are drawn to scale on a 0 to 100% track, so four of the five are deliberately almost invisible.
Marks and Spencer is the outlier, and it is a real one. Its labels routinely print codes: "Raising Agent: E450, Sodium Bicarbonate" on its scones, "Raising Agent: E450, E501" on its blueberry muffins. You can check that on a pack in a shop. Every other major retailer we hold spells the additive out instead.
So a shopper who has been told to watch out for E numbers is looking for something that is usually not printed. "Preservative: sodium metabisulphite" is E223. "Colour: annatto norbixin" is E160b. "Stabiliser: guar gum" is E412. The additive is declared either way, but only one of those forms is searchable if you do not already know the name.
Method: a text search for a literal E-code pattern in the ingredients field of own-brand products from five UK retailers, excluding non-food lines and products with no ingredients list. It counts what is printed, not what is present, and it does not depend on our additive detection.
Great Britain keeps its own list now
Most explainers still describe E numbers as an EU system, and for Northern Ireland that remains right. For Great Britain it is out of date. The Food Standards Agency maintains a GB register of authorised additives; the EU list is maintained separately with EFSA doing the safety assessment. Both started from the same assimilated law in 2021 and have moved apart since.
The practical consequence: an additive can be legal in one and not the other, and a code you find on an international product or an imported sweet is not automatically approved for sale here. The Food Standards Agency publishes the GB list, and it runs to 327 codes. Checking our 454 additive pages against it: 338 are on it, 4 are enzymes regulated under a separate regime, and 112 are not approved for food use in Great Britain. E143 Fast Green FCF is one. E128 Red 2G is another, banned here since August 2007. Absence from that list is the test, not whether a code exists somewhere in the world.
This is also why a US-facing ingredient list is a poor guide. American labels use different names and a different approval system entirely, so "Red 40" on an imported packet is the same dye as E129 here.
Are E numbers bad for you?
The code itself tells you nothing about that. It tells you a substance was assessed and given a number. What the evidence says varies enormously from one additive to the next, which is why we publish a page per additive rather than a verdict on the category.
A few carry findings worth knowing. Six colours require a warning on the pack in the UK: E102 tartrazine, E104 quinoline yellow, E110 sunset yellow FCF, E122 carmoisine, E124 ponceau 4R and E129 allura red AC. Food containing any of them must 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, and the six are commonly called the Southampton Six.
A second group sits in live scientific argument. Emulsifiers and their effect on gut bacteria is an active research area rather than a settled question. Nitrites and nitrates in cured meat are the additive side of a finding about processed meat that sits with the WHO's cancer agency.
Most of the rest do an unremarkable job in small amounts with no finding attached to them at all. Grouping all of them under one label, in either direction, is the mistake. Our additive guide goes through the ones that come up most in a UK shop, and the UPF list covers the separate question of processing.
What people ask us about E numbers
Why can I not find an E number on my food packet?
Because UK labels usually print the additive's name instead of its code, and both are legal. Across the 21,077 own-brand products we checked, about one in 200 prints a literal E number once Marks and Spencer is set aside. “Preservative: sodium metabisulphite” is naming E223 without using the code.
Are E numbers banned in the UK?
Some are. A code existing does not mean it is approved for use here. The FSA's approved list for Great Britain runs to 327 codes; checking our 454 additive pages against it, 112 are not approved for food use in GB. E143 Fast Green FCF is one, and E128 Red 2G has been banned here since August 2007. Most codes you meet on a UK pack are fine to find: 338 of ours are on the list.
Full breakdown: which E numbers are banned in the UK.
Does the UK still follow EU additive rules after Brexit?
Not automatically. Great Britain keeps its own register of authorised additives, run 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.
Does an E number mean the ingredient is artificial?
No. The code describes a regulated function, not an origin. E300 is vitamin C, E440 is pectin from fruit, E160a is the pigment in carrots. Equally, an ingredient with no code is not therefore simple: palm oil and glucose-fructose syrup carry no E number.
How many E numbers are there?
Several hundred are in use and the numbering runs past E1500. We publish a page for 454 of them, which covers the ones a UK shopper is likely to meet plus those that turn up on imported products.
Which E numbers need a warning label?
The Southampton Six: E102 tartrazine, E104 quinoline yellow, E110 sunset yellow FCF, E122 carmoisine, E124 ponceau 4R and E129 allura red AC. A food containing any of them must carry the wording “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children”.
Is E300 an additive if it is just vitamin C?
Yes, when it is added to do a job. Ascorbic acid is used as an antioxidant to stop fats going rancid and cut fruit browning. The same substance is a nutrient when it is naturally in the food and an additive when it is put there for a technological reason.
Point your phone at the pack instead
You should not have to memorise 472 names to read a label. Scan a UK barcode and NutraSafe matches what is declared, by name or by code, to the additive behind it, and says in plain English what it is 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.
NutraSafe Pro · £3.99/month · iOS
Last reviewed: 20 September 2026 · Sources: the FSA/GOV.UK approved additives and E numbers list (327 codes, published 25 June 2026), EFSA, assimilated Regulation (EC) 1333/2008, and NutraSafe's own product database.