Ethanol is the additive the food industry lists as E1510. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from IARC: 'Alcoholic beverages' and 'ethanol in alcoholic beverages' are classified Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans). The evaluation addresses beverage-level consumption, not trace carrier solvent (IARC Monographs Vol. 100E (2012), Personal habits and indoor combustions: alcoholic beverages)
- 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 33 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in cakes and bread. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 2 citations from IARC and the FDA, each one below.
What Ethanol 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. Ethanol 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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IARC
Monographs Vol. 100E (2012) — Personal habits and indoor combustions: alcoholic beverages
'Alcoholic beverages' and 'ethanol in alcoholic beverages' are classified Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans). The evaluation addresses beverage-level consumption, not trace carrier solvent. -
FDA
Substances Added to Food inventory — ethyl alcohol
Listed for US food use as a solvent/carrier; no additive-level restriction identified.
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 low. 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 Ethanol (E1510) 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: Listed for US food use as a solvent/carrier; no additive-level restriction identified (FDA Substances Added to Food inventory, ethyl alcohol).
What is E1510?
E1510 is the E number for Ethanol, an additive. Open Food Facts tags it en:e1510.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E1510 in our table, then the closest additives of the same kind by number.
- Invertase (E1103), no risk identified
- Lipase (E1104), no risk identified
- Polydextrose (E1200), no risk identified
- Hydroxypropyl distarch phosphate (E1442), no risk identified
- Benzyl alcohol (E1519), no risk identified
- Propylene glycol (E1520), no risk identified