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Lecithins (E322)

Table v1.3 (data as of 14 Aug 2026), page updated 26 Sep 2026

Lecithins are the emulsifiers the food industry lists as E322. In our table they are no risk identified: they take no points off a product's score.

In short
  • The key finding, from EFSA: Re-evaluation of lecithins (E 322): no need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern for the general population from more than 1 year of age at the refined exposure assessment for reported uses (10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4742)
  • No child flag. The class, and the points it costs, are the same for a child of any age.
  • Where you meet it. They turn up in 1,360 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in cookies, chocolate and breakfast cereals. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
  • 2 citations from EFSA, each one below.

What Lecithins do 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. Lecithins take 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.

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Sito app: a cereal scored 30 out of 100 for a child's age Sito app: logging a child's meal from a photo

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.

  • EFSA 10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4742
    Re-evaluation of lecithins (E 322): no need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern for the general population from more than 1 year of age at the refined exposure assessment for reported uses.
  • EFSA 10.2903/j.efsa.2020.6266
    Follow-up opinion covering E 322 in foods for infants below 16 weeks of age; no adverse finding carried back to general-population uses.

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

Are Lecithins (E322) 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 lecithins (E 322): no need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern for the general population from more than 1 year of age at the refined exposure assessment for reported uses (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4742).

What is E322?

E322 is the E number for Lecithins, which our table lists as an emulsifier. Open Food Facts tags it en:e322.

Next to it on the label

The E numbers either side of E322 in our table, then the closest emulsifiers by number.

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