Esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids are the emulsifiers the food industry lists as E472. In our table they are no risk identified: they take no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: One opinion covers the whole family: 'there is no need for a numerical ADI for E 472a,b,c'; an ADI of 600 mg/kg bw per day (as tartaric acid) for E 472e and E 472f; 'considering the exposure estimates, there is no safety concern at their reported uses and use levels for E 472a-f'; and E 472a-f are not of concern with regard to genotoxicity (10.2903/j.efsa.2020.6032 (EFSA Journal 2020;18(3):6032, PMC7448088, Re-evaluation of acetic, lactic, citric, tartaric, mono- and diacetyltartaric and mixed acetic and tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E 472a-f) as food additives))
- No child flag. The class, and the points it costs, are the same for a child of any age.
- Where you meet it. They turn up in 1 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 1 citation from EFSA, each one below.
What Esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids do 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. Esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids take 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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EFSA
10.2903/j.efsa.2020.6032 (EFSA Journal 2020;18(3):6032, PMC7448088 — Re-evaluation of acetic, lactic, citric, tartaric, mono- and diacetyltartaric and mixed acetic and tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E 472a-f) as food additives)
One opinion covers the whole family: 'there is no need for a numerical ADI for E 472a,b,c'; an ADI of 600 mg/kg bw per day (as tartaric acid) for E 472e and E 472f; 'considering the exposure estimates, there is no safety concern at their reported uses and use levels for E 472a-f'; and E 472a-f are not of concern with regard to genotoxicity.
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
Are Esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E472) 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: One opinion covers the whole family: 'there is no need for a numerical ADI for E 472a,b,c'; an ADI of 600 mg/kg bw per day (as tartaric acid) for E 472e and E 472f; 'considering the exposure estimates, there is no safety concern at their reported uses and use levels for E 472a-f'; and E 472a-f are not of concern with regard to genotoxicity (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2020.6032 (EFSA Journal 2020;18(3):6032, PMC7448088, Re-evaluation of acetic, lactic, citric, tartaric, mono- and diacetyltartaric and mixed acetic and tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E 472a-f) as food additives)).
What is E472?
E472 covers Esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids as a group, which our table lists as an emulsifier. Our table also lists its forms one by one: E472a, E472b, E472c and E472e. Open Food Facts tags it en:e472.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E472 in our table, then the closest emulsifiers by number.
- Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E471), no risk identified
- ACETEM (E472a), no risk identified
- Lactic acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E472b), no risk identified
- CITREM (E472c), no risk identified
- DATEM (E472e), no risk identified
- Sucrose esters of fatty acids (E473), high risk, flagged for young children