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Additive

Boric acid (E284)

E284 is in the E200s, the range used for preservatives. Here’s what it goes by on a label, and what regulators and scientists have said about it.

Sources checked September 26, 2026

Names on a label

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: lubricant or release agent.1

What regulators and scientists say

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

Sources

  1. US Food and Drug Administration. Substances Added to Food inventory.
  2. EFSA. Scientific Opinion on the re-evaluation of boric acid (E 284) and sodium tetraborate (borax) (E 285) as food additives., 2013.
  3. European Food Safety Authority. Glossary: acceptable daily intake.

Records as held by Revely on September 26, 2026. Each links to its source.