Sucrose acetate isobutyrate is the emulsifier the food industry lists as E444. In our table it is no risk identified: it takes no points off a product's score.
- The key finding, from EFSA: Re-evaluation of sucrose acetate isobutyrate (E 444): ADI revised from 10 to 20 mg/kg bw per day (UF 100); in both exposure scenarios the estimates were below the ADI (10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4489)
- 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 6 of the 10,000 packaged foods scanned most on Open Food Facts, most often in soft drinks. Nine in ten of those foods are sold in Europe (counted 26 Sep 2026).
- 1 citation from EFSA, each one below.
What Sucrose acetate isobutyrate 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. Sucrose acetate isobutyrate 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.2016.4489
Re-evaluation of sucrose acetate isobutyrate (E 444): ADI revised from 10 to 20 mg/kg bw per day (UF 100); in both exposure scenarios the estimates were below the ADI.
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 Sucrose acetate isobutyrate (E444) 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: Re-evaluation of sucrose acetate isobutyrate (E 444): ADI revised from 10 to 20 mg/kg bw per day (UF 100); in both exposure scenarios the estimates were below the ADI (EFSA, 10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4489).
What is E444?
E444 is the E number for Sucrose acetate isobutyrate, an emulsifier. Open Food Facts tags it en:e444.
Next to it on the label
The E numbers either side of E444 in our table, then the closest emulsifiers by number.
- Polysorbate 40 (E434), low risk, flagged for young children
- Polysorbate 60 (E435), low risk, flagged for young children
- Polysorbate 65 (E436), low risk, flagged for young children
- Ammonium phosphatides (E442), no risk identified
- BVO (E443), high risk
- Glycerol esters of wood rosin (E445), no risk identified