Pectins are the thickeners the food industry lists as E440. 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 pectin (E 440i) and amidated pectin (E 440ii): no safety concern for the general population; no need for a numerical ADI (SCF had allocated ADI 'not specified') (10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4866)
- 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 316 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in jams, yogurts and cookies. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 2 citations from EFSA, each one below.
What Pectins 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. Pectins 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.2017.4866
Re-evaluation of pectin (E 440i) and amidated pectin (E 440ii): no safety concern for the general population; no need for a numerical ADI (SCF had allocated ADI 'not specified'). -
EFSA
PMC7845505 (opinion on E 440i/ii in foods for infants below 16 weeks of age)
Infant-specific follow-up opinion; does not alter the 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 Pectins (E440) 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 pectin (E 440i) and amidated pectin (E 440ii): no safety concern for the general population; no need for a numerical ADI (SCF had allocated ADI 'not specified') (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4866).
What is E440?
E440 is the E number for Pectins, which our table lists as a thickener. Open Food Facts tags it en:e440.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E440 in our table, then the closest thickeners by number.
- Konjac (E425), moderate risk, flagged for young children
- Soybean hemicellulose (E426), no risk identified
- Gelatine (E428), no risk identified
- Polysorbate 65 (E436), low risk, flagged for young children
- Ammonium phosphatides (E442), no risk identified
- Cellulose (E460), no risk identified