Ponceau 4R (E124): What the Sources Found

Ponceau 4R is the colour the food industry lists as E124. In our table it is moderate risk: it takes 15 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.

In short

Moderate risk. 15 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.
3 citations from EFSA, Law, each one below.

What Ponceau 4R does to a score

A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Ponceau 4R takes 15 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.

EFSA 10.2903/j.efsa.2009.1328
ADI reduced from 4 to 0.7 mg/kg bw/day (NOAEL 70 mg/kg bw/day, mouse glomerulonephrosis); at maximum use levels, intakes for 1-10-year-old children at the MEAN and high percentiles are generally above the ADI even in refined estimates.
EFSA 10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4073
After 24 MPLs were withdrawn and 29 reduced, no exposure estimate exceeded the ADI of 0.7 mg/kg bw/day in any population group.
Law EU: Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, Annex V
Mandatory child activity/attention warning label.

Why this class

IARC Group 2B; or an EFSA re-evaluation that flagged genotoxicity data gaps, found safety could not be assessed on the available data, or cut the ADI citing child exposure; or an EU harmonised classification of the substance as a reproductive or developmental hazard; or an EU withdrawal of one authorised food use while others remain; or an OEHHA/Proposition 65 listing; or membership of the Southampton-six colourants.

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.