BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) (E320)

Names on a label

• E320
• E 320
• BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole)
• Butylated hydroxyanisole

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; dough strengthener; flavor enhancer; flour treating agent; oxidizing or reducing agent.¹

What regulators and scientists say

• EFSA set an acceptable daily intake of 1 mg per kilogram of body weight per day (September 21, 2011). For a 70 kg (154 lb) adult, that’s about 70 mg a day.²
• The FDA lists it as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for its intended use in food (21 CFR 182.3169).¹
• IARC classifies it as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B, 1987).³
• California lists it under Proposition 65 as a chemical known to cause cancer, since January 1, 1990.⁴

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.”⁵

IARC’s groups “indicate the strength of the evidence as to whether an agent is capable of causing cancer,” but they don’t measure how likely cancer is at a given level of exposure.⁶