Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose is the thickener the food industry lists as E464. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: Re-evaluation of celluloses including hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (E 464): no need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern at the reported uses and use levels for the general population; no concern for genotoxicity (10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5047 (PMC7009359))
- 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 22 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in bread and chips. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 1 citation from EFSA, each one below.
What Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose 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. Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose 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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EFSA
10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5047 (PMC7009359)
Re-evaluation of celluloses including hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (E 464): no need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern at the reported uses and use levels for the general population; no concern for 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 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.
Questions parents ask
Is Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (E464) 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: Re-evaluation of celluloses including hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (E 464): no need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern at the reported uses and use levels for the general population; no concern for genotoxicity (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5047 (PMC7009359)).
What is E464?
E464 is the E number for Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, a thickener. Open Food Facts tags it en:e464.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E464 in our table, then the closest thickeners by number.
- Soybean hemicellulose (E426), no risk identified
- Gelatine (E428), no risk identified
- Pectins (E440), no risk identified
- Cellulose (E460), no risk identified
- Methyl cellulose (E461), no risk identified
- CMC (E466), low risk, flagged for young children