Sodium ascorbate is the antioxidant the food industry lists as E301. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: E301 assessed jointly with E300/E302: no safety concern at reported uses and use levels; no numerical ADI needed (10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4087)
- 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 56 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in processed meats, ready meals and meat alternatives. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 2 citations from EFSA and the FDA, each one below.
What Sodium ascorbate 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 ascorbate 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
10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4087
E301 assessed jointly with E300/E302: no safety concern at reported uses and use levels; no numerical ADI needed. -
FDA
21 CFR ยง182.3731 (sodium ascorbate, GRAS)
GRAS in the US as a chemical preservative.
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
Is Sodium ascorbate (E301) 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: E301 assessed jointly with E300/E302: no safety concern at reported uses and use levels; no numerical ADI needed (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4087).
What is E301?
E301 is the E number for Sodium ascorbate, an antioxidant. Open Food Facts tags it en:e301.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E301 in our table, then the closest antioxidants by number.
- Ascorbic acid (E300), no risk identified
- Fatty acid esters of ascorbic acid (E304), no risk identified
- Tocopherol-rich extract (E306), no risk identified
- Alpha-tocopherol (E307), no risk identified
- Propyl gallate (E310), low risk
- Octyl gallate (E311), high risk