borax (E285): What the Sources Found

Sodium tetraborate (borax) is the preservative the food industry lists as E285. In our table it is moderate risk: it takes 15 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.

In short

Moderate risk. 15 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.
3 citations from EFSA, FDA, Open Food Facts, each one below.

What borax does to a score

A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. borax takes 15 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.2013.3407
Boron is the toxicologically active species; group ADI 0.16 mg boron/kg bw/day; children's P95 exposure from additive use 0.56 mg boron/kg bw/day, the highest of any population group; authorised in the EU only as a preservative for sturgeon eggs (caviar).
FDA eCFR search of 21 CFR — no direct food-additive/GRAS listing for borax or sodium tetraborate (food-contact sections only)
Not an approved food preservative in the US.
Open Food Facts additives taxonomy node en:e285
Mapped to the same EFSA 2013 re-evaluation; no OFF exposure-exceedance flags — the child figure comes from the EFSA opinion.

Why this class

IARC Group 2B; or an EFSA re-evaluation that flagged genotoxicity data gaps, found safety could not be assessed on the available data, or cut the ADI citing child exposure; or an EU harmonised classification of the substance as a reproductive or developmental hazard; or an EU withdrawal of one authorised food use while others remain; or an OEHHA/Proposition 65 listing; or membership of the Southampton-six colourants.

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.