Ponceau 4R (E124)

Names on a label

• E124
• E 124
• Ponceau 4R
• Cochineal Red A
• New Coccine
• CI 16255

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 0.7 mg per kilogram of body weight per day (September 23, 2009). For a 70 kg (154 lb) adult, that’s about 49 mg a day.²

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.”³