Malic acid is the acidity regulator the food industry lists as E296. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EU law: E 296 authorised generally; only the L(+) form permitted in infant and young-child foods (Commission Directive 2006/125/EC (processed cereal-based foods and baby foods); Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 Annex II)
- 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 136 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in soft drinks, bread and chips. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 2 citations from EU law and the FDA, each one below.
What Malic acid 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. Malic acid 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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EU law
Commission Directive 2006/125/EC (processed cereal-based foods and baby foods); Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 Annex II
E 296 authorised generally; only the L(+) form permitted in infant and young-child foods. -
FDA
Substances Added to Food inventory — malic acid
GRAS direct food substance (flavour enhancer, pH control).
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 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 Malic acid (E296) 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: GRAS direct food substance (flavour enhancer, pH control) (FDA Substances Added to Food inventory, malic acid).
What is E296?
E296 is the E number for Malic acid, an acidity regulator. Open Food Facts tags it en:e296.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E296 in our table, then the closest acidity regulators by number.
- Lactic acid (E270), no risk identified
- Carbon dioxide (E290), no risk identified
- Fumaric acid (E297), no risk identified
- Sodium lactate (E325), no risk identified
- Potassium lactate (E326), no risk identified
- Calcium lactate (E327), no risk identified