Hexamethylene tetramine (E239): What the Sources Found

Hexamethylene tetramine is the preservative the food industry lists as E239. In our table it is moderate risk: it takes 15 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.

In short

Moderate risk. 15 of the 33 additive points come off a product that carries it.
No child flag. Nothing below is written about children specifically, so the class is the same at every age.
3 citations from EFSA, IARC, FDA, each one below.

What Hexamethylene tetramine does to a score

A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Hexamethylene tetramine takes 15 of the 33 additive 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.

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 10.2903/j.efsa.2014.3696 (EFSA Journal 2014;12(6):3696)
'Due to the limitations in the database the Panel could not identify a critical study and therefore to derive an ADI.' Child exposure to formaldehyde from HMT could reach 87 µg/kg bw/day under a conservative assumption; the Panel nonetheless concluded the Provolone-only use at 25 mg/kg is not of safety concern, and that any extension of use would need new toxicity data.
IARC classification list — Formaldehyde, CAS 50-00-0, Group 1
The breakdown product is Group 1, but on inhalation evidence; there is no IARC classification of hexamethylene tetramine itself and no dietary-route Group 1 finding.
FDA eCFR search of 21 CFR — no listing for hexamethylenetetramine/hexamethylene tetramine as a food additive
Not permitted in US food.

Why this class

IARC Group 2B; or an EFSA re-evaluation that flagged genotoxicity data gaps, found safety could not be assessed on the available data, or cut the ADI citing child exposure; or an EU harmonised classification of the substance as a reproductive or developmental hazard; or an EU withdrawal of one authorised food use while others remain; or an OEHHA/Proposition 65 listing; or membership of the Southampton-six colourants.

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.