Cochineal / carmine is the colour the food industry lists as E120. In our table it is low risk: it takes 6 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.
- Low risk. 6 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 Cochineal / carmine does to a score
A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Cochineal / carmine takes 6 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.
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EFSA
10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4288
ADI confirmed at 5 mg carmine/kg bw/day, equivalent to 2.5 mg carminic acid/kg bw/day; no reason found to revise the 1983 SCF ADI. -
FDA
21 CFR 73.100; Federal Register 2009-03-11 (E9-5286), confirmation of effective date
FDA requires cochineal extract and carmine to be declared by their common name on all food labels, in response to reports of severe allergic reactions including anaphylaxis.
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 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.
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.
Other colours in the table
- Green 3 (E143), low risk
- Vegetable carbon (E153), low risk
- Brown HT (E155), low risk
- Annatto (E160b), low risk
- Beta-apo-8'-carotenal (E160e), low risk
- Lutein (E161b), low risk