Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids are the emulsifiers the food industry lists as E471. In our table they are no risk identified: they take no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: Re-evaluation of mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids (E 471): no need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern at reported uses and use levels; no carcinogenic potential reported. Panel recommended a specification limit for trans fatty acids (10.2903/j.efsa.2017.5045 (PMC7010209))
- 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 414 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in bread, cakes and margarines. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 2 citations from EFSA, each one below.
What Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids 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. Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids 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.
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.2017.5045 (PMC7010209)
Re-evaluation of mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids (E 471): no need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern at reported uses and use levels; no carcinogenic potential reported. Panel recommended a specification limit for trans fatty acids. -
EFSA
10.2903/j.efsa.2021.6885 (PMC8573540)
Follow-up opinion on E 471 in foods for infants below 16 weeks of age and follow-up for all population groups; no adverse general-population conclusion.
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 Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E471) 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 mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids (E 471): no need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern at reported uses and use levels; no carcinogenic potential reported. Panel recommended a specification limit for trans fatty acids (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2017.5045 (PMC7010209)).
What is E471?
E471 is the E number for Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, which our table lists as an emulsifier. Open Food Facts tags it en:e471.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E471 in our table, then the closest emulsifiers by number.
- Sodium, potassium and calcium salts of fatty acids (E470a), no risk identified
- Magnesium salts of fatty acids (E470b), no risk identified
- Esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E472), no risk identified
- ACETEM (E472a), no risk identified
- Lactic acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (E472b), no risk identified
- CITREM (E472c), no risk identified