Sodium nitrite (E250)

Names on a label

• E250
• E 250
• Sodium nitrite

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

What it’s used for

The FDA lists these uses in food: antimicrobial agent; antioxidant; color or coloring adjunct; flavor enhancer; flavoring agent or adjuvant; propellant.¹

What regulators and scientists say

• EFSA found that nitrite from its use as a food additive did not exceed the acceptable daily intake for the general population, “except for a slight exceedance in children at the highest percentile.”²
• EFSA set an acceptable daily intake of 0.1 mg per kilogram of body weight per day (April 5, 2017). For a 70 kg (154 lb) adult, that’s about 7 mg a day.²
• The FDA permits it as a food additive by regulation (21 CFR 172.170, 172.175, 172.177).¹

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