Sulphite ammonia caramel (E150d): What the Sources Found

Sulphite ammonia caramel is the colour the food industry lists as E150d. In our table it is moderate risk: it takes 15 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.

In short

Moderate risk. 15 of the 33 additive points come off a product that carries it.
No child flag. Nothing below is written about children specifically, so the class is the same at every age.
3 citations from EFSA, OEHHA, each one below.

What Sulphite ammonia caramel does to a score

A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Sulphite ammonia caramel takes 15 of the 33 additive 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.

What the sources found

Every classification in our table comes from the citations below, and nothing else. They are quoted as the source wrote them.

EFSA 10.2903/j.efsa.2012.3030
Refined exposure assessment. NO E 150d EXCEEDANCE: toddler 95th-percentile exposure reaches at most 136 mg/kg bw/day against the group ADI of 300 mg/kg bw/day, and 'the combined exposure estimates of the four caramel colours do not exceed the group ADI for any population group'. Only E 150c may exceed, and only against its lower individual ADI of 100 mg/kg bw/day. The absence of any E 150d exceedance is the basis on which this row carries no child flag.
EFSA 10.2903/j.efsa.2011.2004
SUPERSEDED — recorded for provenance, not load-bearing. The 2011 opinion reported that combined dietary exposure to all caramel colours exceeds the group ADI of 300 mg/kg bw/day at the 95th/97.5th percentile and by combined MEAN intake for children. The 2012 refined assessment (cited above) supersedes it: refined combined means are 12-105 mg/kg bw/day, all below 300, and no population group exceeds the group ADI. The 2011 exceedance is not a current finding and does not support a High-risk basis for this row.
OEHHA Prop 65, 4-methylimidazole (listed 2011), NSRL 29 ug/day
4-MEI, present in ammonia and sulphite-ammonia caramels, is a Prop 65 listed carcinogen; EU specifications cap 4-MEI at 250 ppm for class IV caramel.

Why this class

IARC Group 2B; or an EFSA re-evaluation that flagged genotoxicity data gaps, found safety could not be assessed on the available data, or cut the ADI citing child exposure; or an EU harmonised classification of the substance as a reproductive or developmental hazard; or an EU withdrawal of one authorised food use while others remain; or an OEHHA/Proposition 65 listing; or membership of the Southampton-six colourants.

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.