Sodium sulphates are the acidity regulators the food industry lists as E514. In our table they are no risk identified: they take no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: No need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern at reported uses and use levels; toddler exposure (mean 35, P95 68 mg sulphate/kg bw/day) far below the ~300 mg/kg laxative threshold (EFSA Journal 2019;17(8):5868, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2019.5868, Re-evaluation of sulphuric acid and its sodium, potassium, calcium and ammonium salts (E 513 to 517))
- No child flag. The class, and the points it costs, are the same for a child of any age.
- Where you meet it. None of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts list them. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 1 citation from EFSA, each one below.
What Sodium sulphates do 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 sulphates take 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.
-
EFSA
Journal 2019;17(8):5868 — doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2019.5868, Re-evaluation of sulphuric acid and its sodium, potassium, calcium and ammonium salts (E 513–517)
No need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern at reported uses and use levels; toddler exposure (mean 35, P95 68 mg sulphate/kg bw/day) far below the ~300 mg/kg laxative threshold.
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
Are Sodium sulphates (E514) 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: No need for a numerical ADI; no safety concern at reported uses and use levels; toddler exposure (mean 35, P95 68 mg sulphate/kg bw/day) far below the ~300 mg/kg laxative threshold (EFSA Journal 2019;17(8):5868, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2019.5868, Re-evaluation of sulphuric acid and its sodium, potassium, calcium and ammonium salts (E 513 to 517)).
What is E514?
E514 is the E number for Sodium sulphates, which our table lists as an acidity regulator. Open Food Facts tags it en:e514.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E514 in our table, then the closest acidity regulators by number.
- Potassium chloride (E508), no risk identified
- Calcium chloride (E509), no risk identified
- Ammonium chloride (E510), no risk identified
- Calcium sulphate (E516), no risk identified
- Ammonium sulphate (E517), no risk identified
- Aluminium sulphate (E520), moderate risk, flagged for young children