Alpha-amylase is the additive the food industry lists as E1100. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EU law: Food enzymes are regulated separately from additives; the additive authorisations for enzymes under Directive 95/2/EC are repealed on adoption of the Union list of food enzymes (Regulation (EC) No 1332/2008 on food enzymes; European Commission 'EU rules, Enzymes' (food.ec.europa.eu))
- 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 2 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 2 citations from EU law and the FDA, each one below.
What Alpha-amylase 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. Alpha-amylase 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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EU law
Regulation (EC) No 1332/2008 on food enzymes; European Commission 'EU rules — Enzymes' (food.ec.europa.eu)
Food enzymes are regulated separately from additives; the additive authorisations for enzymes under Directive 95/2/EC are repealed on adoption of the Union list of food enzymes. -
FDA
Substances Added to Food inventory — alpha-amylase enzyme preparations
Listed as GRAS enzyme preparations for use in baking and starch processing.
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 medium. 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 Alpha-amylase (E1100) 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: Listed as GRAS enzyme preparations for use in baking and starch processing (FDA Substances Added to Food inventory, alpha-amylase enzyme preparations).
What is E1100?
E1100 is the E number for Alpha-amylase, an additive. Open Food Facts tags it en:e1100.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E1100 in our table, then the closest additives of the same kind by number.
- Propane (E944), no risk identified
- Quillaia extract (E999), no risk identified
- Proteases (E1101), no risk identified
- Invertase (E1103), no risk identified
- Lipase (E1104), no risk identified
- Polydextrose (E1200), no risk identified