[food additives] introduction

Introduction

Many natural products, like fruits and vegetables, can be used as food without any modification. Many organic and even inorganic products can serve as ingredients for man-made food. Both food types may be treated by additives for new or enhanced properties.
The use of e-numbers in real products gives an overview of which numbered food additives can be found in real products as bought in stores in The Netherlands.

The use of e-codes

E-numbers, or e-codes, are being used to show a certain substance has been approved by the European community as food additive. Once a substance has been given an E-number it doesn't mean the substance may be used in any kind of product. Furthermore these codes neither mean the additives are safe in all cases nor do they make clear what is the origin of a particular additive (natural, artificial, ...).

Purpose of this site

The use of E-numbers in real products should help you:

• identify which additives are most frequently used
• find the name of the additive corresponding with a given number
• find the number of the additive corresponding with a given name

Database overview

The complete list of product data used for this site can be obtained as html table.