Calcium silicate (E552): What the Sources Found

Calcium silicate is the additive the food industry lists as E552. 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.
No child flag. Nothing below is written about children specifically, so the class is the same at every age.
2 citations from EFSA, FDA, each one below.

What Calcium silicate does to a score

A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Calcium silicate takes 15 of the 33 additive 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.

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 Journal 2018;16(8):5375 — doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5375, Re-evaluation of calcium silicate (E 552), magnesium silicate (E 553a(i)), magnesium trisilicate (E 553a(ii)) and talc (E 553b)
'The safety of calcium silicate (E 552), magnesium silicate, magnesium trisilicate and talc when used as food additives cannot be assessed'; the 1991 group ADI is obsolete; reliable subchronic, chronic, carcinogenicity and reproductive data are lacking; silicon accumulation in kidney and liver reported in rats; no genotoxicity or developmental-toxicity indication.
FDA Substances Added to Food inventory — calcium silicate
Permitted US anticaking agent; no US restriction and no FDA re-review flagged.

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.