Brown HT (E155)

Brown HT is the color the food industry lists as E155. In our table it is low risk: it takes 6 points off the additive subscore (about 2 of the 100).

What Brown HT 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. Brown HT takes 6 points off the additive subscore (about 2 of the 100), 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. Each finding is our one-line summary of what the source concluded, with the source and reference beside it.

• EFSA 10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1536
  ADI halved to 1.5 mg/kg bw/day from a long-term mouse carcinogenicity/toxicity study; dietary exposure of adults and 1-10-year-old children at the high level may exceed it at the upper end of the range.
• EFSA 10.2903/j.efsa.2014.3719
  Refined exposure: under the first two scenarios the 95th-percentile estimate exceeded the ADI for all age groups except the elderly; under reported use levels only, mean and high estimates were below the ADI for all groups.

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 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 Brown HT (E155) safe for kids?

Low risk. In Sito it takes 6 points off the additive subscore (about 2 of the 100). It is flagged for young children, so for a child under 6 it moves up one class, to moderate risk: 15 points off the additive subscore. The finding we rely on: ADI halved to 1.5 mg/kg bw/day from a long-term mouse carcinogenicity/toxicity study; dietary exposure of adults and 1-10-year-old children at the high level may exceed it at the upper end of the range (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1536).

What is E155?

E155 is the E number for Brown HT, a color. Open Food Facts tags it en:e155.

Next to it on the label

The E numbers either side of E155 in our table, then the closest colors by number.

• Caramel (E150), moderate risk, flagged for young children
• Plain caramel (E150a), no risk identified
• Caustic sulphite caramel (E150b), no risk identified
• Brilliant Black BN (E151), no risk identified
• Vegetable carbon (E153), low risk
• Carotenoids (E160), no risk identified