Home / Additive Table / Calcium bisulphite (E227)

Calcium bisulphite (E227)

Table v1.3 (data as of 14 Aug 2026), page updated 26 Sep 2026

Calcium bisulphite is the preservative the food industry lists as E227. In our table it is high risk: it takes 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100).

In short
  • The key finding, from EFSA: Within the joint E 220 to E 228 re-evaluation; read-across on SO2-equivalents across all sulfite sources, with exposure above the temporary group ADI of 0.7 mg SO2 eq/kg bw/day for all population groups including toddlers and children (10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4438 (EFSA Journal 2016;14(4):4438))
  • 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. It is already in our top class, so the flag cannot move it higher.
  • 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).
  • 4 citations from EFSA, EU law and the FDA, each one below.

What Calcium bisulphite 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. Calcium bisulphite takes 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100). 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.

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Sito app: a cereal scored 30 out of 100 for a child's age Sito app: logging a child's meal from a photo

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.

Why this class

IARC Group 1 or 2A with a dietary exposure route; or EFSA has withdrawn or negated a safety conclusion; or EFSA’s own exposure assessment finds a child age group exceeding the ADI at mean intake; or the substance is banned or formally being phased out for food use by the EU, by the US FDA, or under a US state law.

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 Calcium bisulphite (E227) safe for kids?

High risk. In Sito it takes 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100). It is flagged for young children, and it is already in our top class, so the flag cannot move it higher. The finding we rely on: Within the joint E 220 to E 228 re-evaluation; read-across on SO2-equivalents across all sulfite sources, with exposure above the temporary group ADI of 0.7 mg SO2 eq/kg bw/day for all population groups including toddlers and children (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4438 (EFSA Journal 2016;14(4):4438)).

What is E227?

E227 is the E number for Calcium bisulphite, a preservative. Open Food Facts tags it en:e227.

Next to it on the label

The E numbers either side of E227 in our table, then the closest preservatives by number.

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