Acesulfame K is the sweetener the food industry lists as E950. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: Re-evaluation established a new ADI of 15 mg/kg bw/day (NOAEL 1,500 mg/kg bw/day, UF 100), replacing the SCF's 9 mg/kg bw/day; concluded it is unlikely that acesulfame K intake is associated with cancer, glucose/insulin disturbance, cardiovascular risk or organ toxicity, and that neither the sweetener nor its degradation products raise genotoxicity concerns even at low pH and elevated temperature (EFSA Journal 2025;23(4):9317, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9317 (PMC12041894), published 2025-04-30)
- No child flag. The class, and the points it costs, are the same for a child of any age.
- Where you meet it. It turns up in 151 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in soft drinks, yogurts and juice drinks. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 3 citations from EFSA and the FDA, each one below.
What Acesulfame K does to a score
A packaged food's additive subscore starts at 100 and loses points for each additive on the label; that subscore is a third of the final score. Acesulfame K takes no points off a product's score. Scan the pack in Sito and the score you get is the one for your own child's age, with this additive named in the reasons. How we score has the whole method.
See what is in your own cupboard
Scan a packaged food and Sito names the additives in it, then scores the product out of 100 for your child's age.
What the sources found
Every classification in our table comes from the citations below, and nothing else. Each finding is our one-line summary of what the source concluded, with the source and reference beside it.
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EFSA
Journal 2025;23(4):9317, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9317 (PMC12041894), published 2025-04-30
Re-evaluation established a new ADI of 15 mg/kg bw/day (NOAEL 1,500 mg/kg bw/day, UF 100), replacing the SCF's 9 mg/kg bw/day; concluded it is unlikely that acesulfame K intake is associated with cancer, glucose/insulin disturbance, cardiovascular risk or organ toxicity, and that neither the sweetener nor its degradation products raise genotoxicity concerns even at low pH and elevated temperature. -
EFSA
Call for data on genotoxicity data on sweeteners, 2021-06-30 (efsa.europa.eu/en/call/call-data-genotoxicity-data-sweeteners)
E 950 had been listed as needing basic-battery genotoxicity testing (bacterial reverse mutation + in vitro micronucleus) — a gap that the completed 2025 re-evaluation closed. -
FDA
High-Intensity Sweeteners (fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/high-intensity-sweeteners)
Acesulfame potassium is one of six high-intensity sweeteners approved by FDA as a food additive, with an ADI established at pre-market review.
Why this class
Clean current EFSA and FDA status. These rows exist so that an unfamiliar additive is never treated as a bad one: a missing row costs a product nothing, and a clean row says so with citations.
Our confidence in this row's classification is high. Medium or low does not mean the evidence is weak; it means something about the row is still being pinned down, usually a regulatory status confirmed from one source rather than two.
Questions parents ask
Is Acesulfame K (E950) safe for kids?
No risk identified. No regulator finding we score, so a product keeps its full additive subscore in Sito. The current status is clean: Re-evaluation established a new ADI of 15 mg/kg bw/day (NOAEL 1,500 mg/kg bw/day, UF 100), replacing the SCF's 9 mg/kg bw/day; concluded it is unlikely that acesulfame K intake is associated with cancer, glucose/insulin disturbance, cardiovascular risk or organ toxicity, and that neither the sweetener nor its degradation products raise genotoxicity concerns even at low pH and elevated temperature (EFSA Journal 2025;23(4):9317, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9317 (PMC12041894), published 2025-04-30).
What is E950?
E950 is the E number for Acesulfame K, a sweetener. Open Food Facts tags it en:e950.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E950 in our table, then the closest sweeteners by number.
- Propane (E944), no risk identified
- Aspartame (E951), moderate risk
- Cyclamic acid and its Na and Ca salts (E952), high risk
- Isomalt (E953), moderate risk
- Saccharin and its salts (E954), moderate risk
- Sucralose (E955), low risk