Glycine and its sodium salt (E640)

Glycine and its sodium salt is the flavor enhancer the food industry lists as E640. In our table it is low risk: it takes 6 points off the additive subscore (about 2 of the 100).

What Glycine and its sodium salt 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. Glycine and its sodium salt takes 6 points off the additive subscore (about 2 of the 100). 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. Each finding is our one-line summary of what the source concluded, with the source and reference beside it.

• FDA 21 CFR 170.50 (govinfo CFR-2024-title21-vol3-sec170-50)
  FDA no longer regards glycine and its salts as generally recognized as safe for use in human food; by 1971-05-08 manufacturers had to reformulate to eliminate added glycine or operate under an authorising food additive regulation supported by toxicity data (GRAS status for animal feed was unaffected).
• FDA 21 CFR 172.812 (govinfo CFR-2024-title21-vol3-sec172-812)
  The only authorised human-food uses of glycine are as a masking agent for saccharin's bitter aftertaste in beverages and beverage bases (not to exceed 0.2% in the finished beverage) and as a stabiliser in mono- and diglycerides (not to exceed 0.02%).
• EFSA Europe PMC search of EFSA Journal for a glycine (E 640) re-evaluation (executed 2026-08-10)
  No EFSA re-evaluation opinion for glycine and its sodium salt could be located; claims of a 2013 EFSA glycine opinion appear only on low-quality aggregator sites and are not cited here.

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.

Questions parents ask

Is Glycine and its sodium salt (E640) safe for kids?

Low risk. In Sito it takes 6 points off the additive subscore (about 2 of the 100). The finding we rely on: FDA no longer regards glycine and its salts as generally recognized as safe for use in human food; by 1971-05-08 manufacturers had to reformulate to eliminate added glycine or operate under an authorising food additive regulation supported by toxicity data (GRAS status for animal feed was unaffected) (FDA, 21 CFR 170.50 (govinfo CFR-2024-title21-vol3-sec170-50)).

What is E640?

E640 is the E number for Glycine and its sodium salt, a flavor enhancer. Open Food Facts tags it en:e640.

Next to it on the label

The E numbers either side of E640 in our table, then the closest flavor enhancers by number.

• Disodium inosinate (E631), no risk identified
• Dipotassium inosinate (E632), no risk identified
• Calcium inosinate (E633), no risk identified
• Calcium 5'-ribonucleotides (E634), no risk identified
• Disodium 5'-ribonucleotides (E635), no risk identified
• Zinc acetate (E650), no risk identified