Glycerol (E422): What the Sources Found

Glycerol is the additive the food industry lists as E422. In our table it is low risk: it takes 6 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.

In short

Low risk. 6 of the 33 additive points come off a product that carries it.
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 one class up.
3 citations from EFSA, Agency review, each one below.

What Glycerol does to a score

A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Glycerol takes 6 of the 33 additive points off a product's score, 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.

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.

EFSA Journal 2026;24(?):10057 — doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2026.10057, Safety of acute exposure to the food additive glycerol (E 422) from beverages
ARfD of 125 mg glycerol/kg bw per single consumption event derived; acute exposure from a slush ice drink (250 mL for children) exceeds the ARfD in all population groups; max single-event volume 82.7 mL for toddlers 1–2 y; EFSA recommends numerical maximum levels in beverages.
EFSA Journal 2017;15(3):4720 — Re-evaluation of glycerol (E 422) as a food additive
Chronic re-evaluation found no safety concern at reported uses and use levels; no numerical ADI needed.
Agency review Food Safety Authority of Ireland / national advisories on slush ice drinks containing glycerol (updated advice: not for children aged 10 and under)
National regulators advise against slush ice drinks for young children following clinical cases of glycerol intoxication.

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.