Calcium carbonates are the colors the food industry lists as E170. In our table they are no risk identified: they take no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: No need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern with respect to exposure to calcium carbonate per se at reported uses and use levels in all age groups, including infants below 16 weeks; the unavoidable presence of aluminium in E170 flagged as the one issue to address (10.2903/j.efsa.2023.8106)
- No child flag. The class, and the points it costs, are the same for a child of any age.
- Where you meet it. They turn up in 24 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in chocolate, plant-based milks and bread. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 1 citation from EFSA, each one below.
What Calcium carbonates do 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 carbonates take 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.2023.8106
No need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern with respect to exposure to calcium carbonate per se at reported uses and use levels in all age groups, including infants below 16 weeks; the unavoidable presence of aluminium in E170 flagged as the one issue to address.
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
Are Calcium carbonates (E170) 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 need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern with respect to exposure to calcium carbonate per se at reported uses and use levels in all age groups, including infants below 16 weeks; the unavoidable presence of aluminium in E170 flagged as the one issue to address (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2023.8106).
What is E170?
E170 is the E number for Calcium carbonates, which our table lists as a color. Open Food Facts tags it en:e170.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E170 in our table, then the closest colors by number.
- Lutein (E161b), low risk, flagged for young children
- Beetroot red (E162), no risk identified
- Anthocyanins (E163), no risk identified
- Titanium dioxide (E171), high risk
- Iron oxides and hydroxides (E172), moderate risk
- Aluminium (E173), moderate risk, flagged for young children