Tartrazine (E102)

Names on a label

• E102
• E 102
• Tartrazine
• CI 19140

Labels outside Europe often print the number on its own, without the E.

What regulators and scientists say

• EU law requires foods containing it to carry the words “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”¹
• EFSA set an acceptable daily intake of 7.5 mg per kilogram of body weight per day (September 23, 2009). For a 70 kg (154 lb) adult, that’s about 525 mg a day.²
• The FDA permits it as a color additive by regulation (21 CFR 74.705).³

An acceptable daily intake is, in EFSA’s words, “an estimate of the amount of a substance in food or drinking water that can be consumed daily over a lifetime without presenting an appreciable risk to health.”⁴