Potassium carbonates are the acidity regulators the food industry lists as E501. In our table they are no risk identified: they take no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from the FDA: GRAS direct food substances (alkali, leavening) (FDA Substances Added to Food inventory, potassium carbonate / potassium bicarbonate)
- 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 56 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in cookies, chocolate and ready meals. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 2 citations from the FDA and EU law, each one below.
What Potassium carbonates 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. Potassium carbonates 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.
-
FDA
Substances Added to Food inventory — potassium carbonate / potassium bicarbonate
GRAS direct food substances (alkali, leavening). -
EU law
Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 Annex II
E 501 authorised in the EU as a Group I additive at quantum satis.
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
Are Potassium carbonates (E501) 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 substances (alkali, leavening) (FDA Substances Added to Food inventory, potassium carbonate / potassium bicarbonate).
What is E501?
E501 is the E number for Potassium carbonates, which our table lists as an acidity regulator. Open Food Facts tags it en:e501.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E501 in our table, then the closest acidity regulators by number.
- Sodium carbonates (E500), no risk identified
- Carbonates (E502), no risk identified
- Ammonium carbonates (E503), low risk
- Potassium chloride (E508), no risk identified
- Calcium chloride (E509), no risk identified
- Ammonium chloride (E510), no risk identified