Ammonium chloride is the acidity regulator the food industry lists as E510. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EU law: Article 3's definition of 'food additive' is followed by an exclusion list: 'The following are not considered to be food additives: ... (vii) ammonium chloride'. A search of the full consolidated text returns no E 510 entry in Annex II or Annex III, consistent with that exclusion (Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, Article 3(2)(a)(vii), consolidated text 02008R1333, EN, 16.12.2024, 059.001 (EUR-Lex ELI: reg/2008/1333))
- 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 EU law and the FDA, each one below.
What Ammonium chloride 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. Ammonium chloride 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 1333/2008, Article 3(2)(a)(vii), consolidated text 02008R1333 — EN — 16.12.2024 — 059.001 (EUR-Lex ELI: reg/2008/1333)
Article 3's definition of 'food additive' is followed by an exclusion list: 'The following are not considered to be food additives: ... (vii) ammonium chloride'. A search of the full consolidated text returns no E 510 entry in Annex II or Annex III, consistent with that exclusion. -
FDA
21 CFR 184.1138 (Ammonium chloride) — Part 184 "Direct Food Substances Affirmed as Generally Recognized as Safe"; verified against the current eCFR structure
Ammonium chloride is affirmed GRAS as a direct human food substance in the US, so products bearing it are legitimately on the US shelf.
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 Ammonium chloride (E510) 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: Ammonium chloride is affirmed GRAS as a direct human food substance in the US, so products bearing it are legitimately on the US shelf (FDA, 21 CFR 184.1138 (Ammonium chloride), Part 184 "Direct Food Substances Affirmed as Generally Recognized as Safe"; verified against the current eCFR structure).
What is E510?
E510 is the E number for Ammonium chloride, an acidity regulator. Open Food Facts tags it en:e510.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E510 in our table, then the closest acidity regulators by number.
- Ammonium carbonates (E503), low risk
- Potassium chloride (E508), no risk identified
- Calcium chloride (E509), no risk identified
- Sodium sulphates (E514), no risk identified
- Calcium sulphate (E516), no risk identified
- Ammonium sulphate (E517), no risk identified