Lutein is the colour the food industry lists as E161b. In our table it is low risk: it takes 6 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.
- 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.
- 2 citations from EFSA, each one below.
What Lutein does to a score
A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Lutein 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.
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EFSA
10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1678
ADI 1 mg/kg bw/day; Tier-3 intake estimates at then-current use levels were above the ADI at the upper end of the range. -
EFSA
10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2589
Revised exposure after corrected industry data: children's mean intake below the ADI, but the ADI exceeded at the 95th/97.5th percentile in the Netherlands and the UK.
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.
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.
Other colours in the table
- Blue 1 (E133), low risk
- Green 3 (E143), low risk
- Vegetable carbon (E153), low risk
- Brown HT (E155), low risk
- Annatto (E160b), low risk
- Beta-apo-8'-carotenal (E160e), low risk