Dextrin is the thickener the food industry lists as E1400. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from the FDA: Dextrin is affirmed as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) as a direct human food ingredient, used as a formulation aid, processing aid, stabilizer and thickener, and surface-finishing agent under cGMP conditions (21 CFR 184.1277 (Dextrin))
- No child flag. The class, and the points it costs, are the same for a child of any age.
- Where you meet it. It turns up in 27 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in chips, chocolate and jams. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 1 citation from the FDA, each one below.
What Dextrin 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. Dextrin takes 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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FDA
21 CFR 184.1277 (Dextrin)
Dextrin is affirmed as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) as a direct human food ingredient, used as a formulation aid, processing aid, stabilizer and thickener, and surface-finishing agent under cGMP conditions.
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 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.
Questions parents ask
Is Dextrin (E1400) 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: Dextrin is affirmed as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) as a direct human food ingredient, used as a formulation aid, processing aid, stabilizer and thickener, and surface-finishing agent under cGMP conditions (FDA, 21 CFR 184.1277 (Dextrin)).
What is E1400?
E1400 is the E number for Dextrin, a thickener. Open Food Facts tags it en:e1400.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E1400 in our table, then the closest thickeners by number.
- Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (E464), no risk identified
- CMC (E466), low risk, flagged for young children
- Polydextrose (E1200), no risk identified
- Modified starch (E14xx), no risk identified
- Acetylated distarch adipate (E1422), no risk identified
- Hydroxypropyl distarch phosphate (E1442), no risk identified