Sodium aluminium silicate (E554)

Sodium aluminium silicate is the additive the food industry lists as E554. In our table it is high risk: it takes 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100).

What Sodium aluminium silicate 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. Sodium aluminium silicate takes 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100). 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. Each finding is our one-line summary of what the source concluded, with the source and reference beside it.

• EFSA Journal 2020;18(6):6152 — doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2020.6152, Re-evaluation of sodium aluminium silicate (E 554) and potassium aluminium silicate (E 555)
  Aluminium exposure from E 554 up to 1.58 mg/kg bw per week (mean) and 2.13 (P95) in children, exceeding the TWI at both mean and high intake; the safety of E 554 could not be assessed due to insufficient toxicological data and physicochemical characterisation.
• EFSA Journal 2008;6(7):754 — Safety of aluminium from dietary intake
  TWI of 1 mg aluminium/kg bw per week; dietary exposure exceeds the TWI in a significant part of the European population, children in particular.
• EU law Commission Regulation (EU) No 380/2012, EUR-Lex CELEX:32012R0380
  Cut permitted levels for aluminium additives including E 554 for consumer protection, citing exceedance of the TWI by high consumers, especially children.

Why this class

IARC Group 1 or 2A with a dietary exposure route; or EFSA has withdrawn or negated a safety conclusion; or EFSA’s own exposure assessment finds a child age group exceeding the ADI at mean intake; or the substance is banned or formally being phased out for food use by the EU, by the US FDA, or under a US state law.

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

Is Sodium aluminium silicate (E554) safe for kids?

High risk. In Sito it takes 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100). It is flagged for young children, and it is already in our top class, so the flag cannot move it higher. The finding we rely on: Aluminium exposure from E 554 up to 1.58 mg/kg bw per week (mean) and 2.13 (P95) in children, exceeding the TWI at both mean and high intake; the safety of E 554 could not be assessed due to insufficient toxicological data and physicochemical characterisation (EFSA Journal 2020;18(6):6152, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2020.6152, Re-evaluation of sodium aluminium silicate (E 554) and potassium aluminium silicate (E 555)).

What is E554?

E554 is the E number for Sodium aluminium silicate, an additive. Open Food Facts tags it en:e554.

Next to it on the label

The E numbers either side of E554 in our table, then the closest additives of the same kind by number.

• Calcium ferrocyanide (E538), no risk identified
• Silicon dioxide (E551), no risk identified
• Calcium silicate (E552), moderate risk
• Magnesium silicates / talc (E553), moderate risk
• Potassium aluminium silicate (E555), moderate risk, flagged for young children
• Fatty acids (E570), no risk identified