Sodium erythorbate is the antioxidant the food industry lists as E316. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: Combined exposure to erythorbic acid and sodium erythorbate assessed; ADI 6 mg/kg bw/day not exceeded by any population group; no safety concern; OFF records efsa_evaluation_overexposure_risk = en:no (10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4360)
- 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 46 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in processed meats and ready meals. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 1 citation from EFSA, each one below.
What Sodium erythorbate 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 erythorbate 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.2016.4360
Combined exposure to erythorbic acid and sodium erythorbate assessed; ADI 6 mg/kg bw/day not exceeded by any population group; no safety concern; OFF records efsa_evaluation_overexposure_risk = en:no.
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 erythorbate (E316) 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: Combined exposure to erythorbic acid and sodium erythorbate assessed; ADI 6 mg/kg bw/day not exceeded by any population group; no safety concern; OFF records efsa_evaluation_overexposure_risk = en:no (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4360).
What is E316?
E316 is the E number for Sodium erythorbate, an antioxidant. Open Food Facts tags it en:e316.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E316 in our table, then the closest antioxidants by number.
- Octyl gallate (E311), high risk
- Dodecyl gallate (E312), high risk
- Erythorbic acid (E315), no risk identified
- TBHQ (E319), low risk, flagged for young children
- BHA (E320), high risk
- BHT (E321), low risk, flagged for young children