Ascorbic acid is the antioxidant the food industry lists as E300. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: No genotoxicity, no chronic toxicity or carcinogenicity even at high doses, no adverse developmental effects; 'no safety concern ... and there is no need for a numerical ADI for ascorbic acid and its salts' (10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4087 (EFSA Journal 2015;13(5):4087))
- 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 588 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in bread, processed meats and soft drinks. 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 Ascorbic acid 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. Ascorbic acid 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
10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4087 (EFSA Journal 2015;13(5):4087)
No genotoxicity, no chronic toxicity or carcinogenicity even at high doses, no adverse developmental effects; 'no safety concern ... and there is no need for a numerical ADI for ascorbic acid and its salts'. -
FDA
21 CFR §182.3013 (ascorbic acid, GRAS as a chemical preservative); §182.8013 (nutrient)
GRAS in the US both as a preservative and as a nutrient.
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 Ascorbic acid (E300) 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: No genotoxicity, no chronic toxicity or carcinogenicity even at high doses, no adverse developmental effects; 'no safety concern ... and there is no need for a numerical ADI for ascorbic acid and its salts' (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4087 (EFSA Journal 2015;13(5):4087)).
What is E300?
E300 is the E number for Ascorbic acid, an antioxidant. Open Food Facts tags it en:e300.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E300 in our table, then the closest antioxidants by number.
- Fumaric acid (E297), no risk identified
- Sodium ascorbate (E301), no risk identified
- Fatty acid esters of ascorbic acid (E304), no risk identified
- Tocopherol-rich extract (E306), no risk identified
- Alpha-tocopherol (E307), no risk identified
- Propyl gallate (E310), low risk