Saccharin and its salts (E954): What the Sources Found

Saccharin and its salts is the sweetener the food industry lists as E954. 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.
No child flag. Nothing below is written about children specifically, so the class is the same at every age.
3 citations from EFSA, IARC, OEHHA, each one below.

What Saccharin and its salts does to a score

A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Saccharin and its salts takes 15 of the 33 additive 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.

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 Journal 2024;22(11):9044, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2024.9044 (PMC11565076), published Nov 2024
New ADI of 9 mg/kg bw/day as free imide (replacing the SCF's 5 mg/kg bw/day as sodium saccharin); P95 chronic exposure in the refined brand-loyal scenario was below the ADI; no genotoxicity concern for E 954 or its Remsen-Fahlberg-process impurities, BUT a concern for genotoxicity was identified for potential impurities associated with the Maumee process.
IARC Monographs Volume 73 (1999), 'Saccharin and its salts' (inchem.org/documents/iarc/vol73/73-19.html; IARC List of Classifications)
Saccharin and its salts were reclassified as Group 3, not classifiable as to carcinogenicity to humans, with inadequate evidence in experimental animals for the acid form — the rat bladder mechanism depends on rat-specific urine chemistry.
OEHHA notice, 'Saccharin Delisted Effective April 6, 2001 as Known to the State to Cause Cancer' (oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/crnr/saccharin-delisted-effective-april-6-2001-known-state-cause-cancer)
Saccharin (CAS 81-07-2), listed under Prop 65 since 1989, was delisted effective 2001-04-06 following the IARC Group 3 reclassification and NTP's removal of saccharin from its 'reasonably anticipated' list in 2000.

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 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.