Advantame is the sweetener the food industry lists as E969. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: ADI of 5 mg/kg bw/day derived from a NOAEL of 500 mg/kg bw/day for maternal toxicity in a rabbit prenatal developmental toxicity study with a 100-fold uncertainty factor; the Panel concluded advantame and its metabolites pose no safety concern at proposed uses and use levels (EFSA ANS Panel, 'Scientific Opinion on the safety of advantame for the proposed uses as a food additive', EFSA Journal 2013)
- No child flag. The class, and the points it costs, are the same for a child of any age.
- Where you meet it. None of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts list it. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 2 citations from EFSA and the FDA, each one below.
What Advantame 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. Advantame 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.
-
EFSA
ANS Panel, 'Scientific Opinion on the safety of advantame for the proposed uses as a food additive', EFSA Journal 2013
ADI of 5 mg/kg bw/day derived from a NOAEL of 500 mg/kg bw/day for maternal toxicity in a rabbit prenatal developmental toxicity study with a 100-fold uncertainty factor; the Panel concluded advantame and its metabolites pose no safety concern at proposed uses and use levels. -
FDA
21 CFR 172.803 (govinfo CFR-2024-title21-vol3-sec172-803)
Advantame is authorised as a sweetening agent and flavour enhancer in food generally, except in meat and poultry, subject to good manufacturing practice.
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 Advantame (E969) 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: ADI of 5 mg/kg bw/day derived from a NOAEL of 500 mg/kg bw/day for maternal toxicity in a rabbit prenatal developmental toxicity study with a 100-fold uncertainty factor; the Panel concluded advantame and its metabolites pose no safety concern at proposed uses and use levels (EFSA ANS Panel, 'Scientific Opinion on the safety of advantame for the proposed uses as a food additive', EFSA Journal 2013).
What is E969?
E969 is the E number for Advantame, a sweetener. Open Food Facts tags it en:e969.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E969 in our table, then the closest sweeteners by number.
- Neotame (E961), low risk
- Salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E962), moderate risk
- Maltitol (E965), moderate risk
- Xylitol (E967), moderate risk
- Erythritol (E968), high risk, flagged for young children
- Quillaia extract (E999), no risk identified