Carrageenan (E407)

Names on a label

• E407
• E 407
• Carrageenan

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: anticaking agent or free-flow agent; drying agent; emulsifier or emulsifier salt; flavor enhancer; flavoring agent or adjuvant; formulation aid; humectant; processing aid; stabilizer or thickener; texturizer.¹

What regulators and scientists say

• EFSA set an acceptable daily intake of 75 mg per kilogram of body weight per day (March 14, 2018). For a 70 kg (154 lb) adult, that’s about 5.3 g a day.²
• The FDA lists it as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for its intended use in food (21 CFR 182.7255).¹
• IARC classifies it as not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans (Group 3, 1987).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

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.⁵