Home / Additive Table / CMC (E466)

Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) (E466)

Table v1.3 (data as of 14 Aug 2026), page updated 6 Oct 2026

Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is the thickener the food industry lists as E466. In our table it is low risk: it takes 6 points off the additive subscore (about 2 of the 100).

In short
  • The key finding, from EFSA: Re-evaluation of celluloses E 460(i)/(ii), E 461-E 466, E 468, E 469: no need for a numerical ADI, no safety concern at reported uses for the general population, no genotoxicity concern (10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5047 (PMC7009359))
  • 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. For a child under 6 it moves up one class, to moderate risk.
  • Where you meet it. It turns up in 60 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in bread, juice drinks and ready meals. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
  • 4 citations from EFSA and peer-reviewed research, each one below.

What CMC 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. CMC 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.

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.

Download on the App Store
Get it on Google Play
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.

  • EFSA 10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5047 (PMC7009359)
    Re-evaluation of celluloses E 460(i)/(ii), E 461-E 466, E 468, E 469: no need for a numerical ADI, no safety concern at reported uses for the general population, no genotoxicity concern.
  • EFSA PMC9732683 (2022 opinion on E 466 in foods for infants below 16 weeks and follow-up)
    Available data still did not allow an adequate assessment of E 466 in foods for special medical purposes for infants and young children (FC 13.1.5.2); toddler exposure in that category up to 911 mg/kg bw per day at the mean; microbiota effects flagged as requiring further investigation over longer exposure periods.
  • Peer-reviewed PMID 34774538 - Chassaing B et al., Gastroenterology 2022;162(3):743-756
    Double-blind randomised controlled-feeding trial (15 g/day CMC, 11 days, healthy adults): reduced gut microbiota diversity, reduced faecal short-chain fatty acids and free amino acids, increased postprandial abdominal discomfort, and microbiota encroachment into the normally sterile inner mucus layer in 2 of 7 CMC subjects.
  • Peer-reviewed PMID 25731162 - Chassaing B et al., Nature 2015;519:92-96
    CMC and polysorbate-80 at relatively low concentrations induced low-grade intestinal inflammation and metabolic syndrome in wild-type mice and robust colitis in colitis-prone mice, with reduced mucus thickness and bacterial encroachment.

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 CMC (E466) 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: Re-evaluation of celluloses E 460(i)/(ii), E 461-E 466, E 468, E 469: no need for a numerical ADI, no safety concern at reported uses for the general population, no genotoxicity concern (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5047 (PMC7009359)).

What is E466?

E466 is the E number for Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, a thickener. It is also called CMC. Open Food Facts tags it en:e466.

Next to it on the label

The E numbers either side of E466 in our table, then the closest thickeners by number.

Read next