Potassium citrates are the acidity regulators the food industry lists as E332. In our table they are no risk identified: they take no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: Confirms JECFA's 'ADI not specified' for citric acid and its salts and notes citrate's established role as a citric-acid-cycle intermediate. Same source as the E 330, E 331 and E 333 rows (10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4599 (EFSA Journal 2016;14(11):4599, Safety of trimagnesium dicitrate anhydrous as a food additive))
- 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 4 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in soft drinks. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 3 citations from EFSA, the FDA and EU law, each one below.
What Potassium citrates 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 citrates 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.2016.4599 (EFSA Journal 2016;14(11):4599 — Safety of trimagnesium dicitrate anhydrous as a food additive)
Confirms JECFA's 'ADI not specified' for citric acid and its salts and notes citrate's established role as a citric-acid-cycle intermediate. Same source as the E 330, E 331 and E 333 rows. -
FDA
21 CFR 184.1625 (Potassium citrate) — Part 184 "Direct Food Substances Affirmed as Generally Recognized as Safe"; verified against the current eCFR structure
Potassium citrate is affirmed GRAS as a direct human food substance. -
EU law
Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 Annex II, consolidated text 02008R1333 — EN — 16.12.2024 — 059.001 (EUR-Lex ELI: reg/2008/1333)
E 332 potassium citrates authorised in the EU as a Group I additive at quantum satis; no restriction tied to children.
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 Potassium citrates (E332) 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: Confirms JECFA's 'ADI not specified' for citric acid and its salts and notes citrate's established role as a citric-acid-cycle intermediate. Same source as the E 330, E 331 and E 333 rows (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4599 (EFSA Journal 2016;14(11):4599, Safety of trimagnesium dicitrate anhydrous as a food additive)).
What is E332?
E332 is the E number for Potassium citrates, which our table lists as an acidity regulator. Open Food Facts tags it en:e332.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E332 in our table, then the closest acidity regulators by number.
- Calcium lactate (E327), no risk identified
- Citric acid (E330), no risk identified
- Sodium citrates (E331), no risk identified
- Calcium citrates (E333), no risk identified
- L(+)-tartaric acid (E334), no risk identified
- Potassium tartrates (E336), no risk identified