Shellac is the additive the food industry lists as E904. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: ADI of 4 mg/kg bw/day derived (NOAEL 400 mg/kg bw/day, UF 100); temporary for chemically bleached shellac pending organochlorine impurity data; P95 exceedance in several age groups under conservative scenarios judged not to indicate a safety concern (EFSA Journal 2024;22(8):8897, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2024.8897, Re-evaluation of shellac (E 904))
- No child flag. The class, and the points it costs, are the same for a child of any age.
- Where you meet it. It turns up in 3 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 1 citation from EFSA, each one below.
What Shellac does 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. Shellac takes 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
Journal 2024;22(8):8897 — doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2024.8897, Re-evaluation of shellac (E 904)
ADI of 4 mg/kg bw/day derived (NOAEL 400 mg/kg bw/day, UF 100); temporary for chemically bleached shellac pending organochlorine impurity data; P95 exceedance in several age groups under conservative scenarios judged not to indicate a safety concern.
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
Is Shellac (E904) 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: ADI of 4 mg/kg bw/day derived (NOAEL 400 mg/kg bw/day, UF 100); temporary for chemically bleached shellac pending organochlorine impurity data; P95 exceedance in several age groups under conservative scenarios judged not to indicate a safety concern (EFSA Journal 2024;22(8):8897, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2024.8897, Re-evaluation of shellac (E 904)).
What is E904?
E904 is the E number for Shellac, an additive. Open Food Facts tags it en:e904.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E904 in our table, then the closest additives of the same kind by number.
- Dimethylpolysiloxane and methylphenylpolysiloxane (E900), no risk identified
- White and yellow beeswax (E901), no risk identified
- Carnauba wax (E903), no risk identified
- Synthetic wax (E905), no risk identified
- Montanic acid esters (E912), no risk identified
- Oxidised polyethylene wax (E914), no risk identified