Carrageenan (E407)

Carrageenan is the thickener the food industry lists as E407. 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).

What Carrageenan 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. Carrageenan 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.

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.2018.5238
  Re-evaluation of carrageenan (E 407) and processed Eucheuma seaweed (E 407a): the existing group ADI of 75 mg/kg bw per day was made TEMPORARY because of uncertainties in chemistry, exposure and toxicology, with the database to be improved within 5 years.
• EFSA PMC7009739 (full text of 10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5238)
  Verbatim: 'in the refined brand-loyal exposure assessment scenario the exposure estimates exceeded, in some cases by up to approximately 10-fold, the temporary existing ADI at the high level (95th percentile) for all population groups and at the mean for all population groups except for infants and the elderly' - refined brand-loyal exposure up to 758.6 mg/kg bw per day for toddlers (12-35 months).
• EFSA PMC7009739 (same opinion, infant section)
  Panel: 'it remains inadvisable to use carrageenan in infant formulae that are fed from birth, including those in the category of foods for special medical purposes'; unresolved question of absorption by the immature gut of very young infants.
• IARC Monographs Vol. 31 (1983); Supplement 7 (1987) - carrageenan
  Degraded carrageenan classified Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic to humans; colorectal tumours induced in rats); native/undegraded carrageenan classified Group 3 (not classifiable).

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IARC Group 1 or 2A with a dietary exposure route; or EFSA has withdrawn or negated a safety conclusion; or EFSA’s own exposure assessment finds a child age group exceeding the ADI at mean intake; or the substance is banned or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 Carrageenan (E407) 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: Re-evaluation of carrageenan (E 407) and processed Eucheuma seaweed (E 407a): the existing group ADI of 75 mg/kg bw per day was made TEMPORARY because of uncertainties in chemistry, exposure and toxicology, with the database to be improved within 5 years (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5238).

What is E407?

E407 is the E number for Carrageenan, a thickener. Open Food Facts tags it en:e407.

Next to it on the label

The E numbers either side of E407 in our table, then the closest thickeners by number.

• Sodium alginate (E401), no risk identified
• Propane-1,2-diol alginate (E405), no risk identified
• Agar (E406), no risk identified
• Locust bean gum (E410), no risk identified
• Guar gum (E412), no risk identified
• Tragacanth (E413), no risk identified