Brilliant Blue FCF (Blue 1) is the colour the food industry lists as E133. In our table it is low risk: it takes 6 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.
- Low risk. 6 of the 33 additive points come off a product that carries it.
- Flagged for young children. Set only where EFSA’s own exposure assessment shows toddlers or children exceeding or approaching the ADI, or where a regulator used explicitly child-specific language. For a child under 6 it moves one class up.
- 4 citations from EFSA, OEHHA, Law, FDA, each one below.
What Blue 1 does to a score
A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Blue 1 takes 6 of the 33 additive points off a product's score, and a child under 6 sees it one class higher again. 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.
What the sources found
Every classification in our table comes from the citations below, and nothing else. They are quoted as the source wrote them.
-
EFSA
10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1853
ADI reduced from 10 to 6 mg/kg bw/day; Tier-2 intake estimates above the ADI at the 95th percentile for children (Tier-3 refined estimates below the ADI). -
OEHHA
(2021) synthetic food dyes / children neurobehavioral assessment
Blue 1 is one of the seven dyes assessed. OEHHA's overall conclusion is that synthetic food dyes can impact neurobehavior in some children; its review of human studies suggests that synthetic food dyes are associated with adverse neurobehavioral effects, such as inattentiveness, hyperactivity and restlessness in sensitive children, and that some children are likely to be more adversely affected than others. -
Law
US-CA: AB 2316 ; US-WV: HB 2354 (school provisions in force 2025-08-01)
Blue 1 banned from California public-school food from 2027-12-31 and already barred from WV school food. -
FDA
Tracking Food Industry Pledges to Remove Petroleum Based Food Dyes (fda.gov)
Blue 1 is in the voluntary industry phase-out FDA targets by end of 2027; it remains legally authorised in the meantime.
Why this class
A credible adverse or precautionary signal that stops short of every Moderate and High criterion: peer-reviewed adverse findings not yet reflected in regulatory status, an exposure exceedance confined to high-percentile or single-event estimates, or a precautionary regulatory step short of those criteria — a reduced ADI, a data limitation noted without an adverse conclusion, a narrowed or conditioned authorisation, or a child-focused assessment or school-food law that covers the additive as part of a class.
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.
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.
Other colours in the table
- Green 3 (E143), low risk
- Vegetable carbon (E153), low risk
- Brown HT (E155), low risk
- Annatto (E160b), low risk
- Beta-apo-8'-carotenal (E160e), low risk
- Lutein (E161b), low risk