Household Ingredients Compared › Guides
An ingredient list full of E-numbers looks like code, so shoppers tend to do one of two things with it: ignore it entirely, or treat every code as a warning. Neither is right. Most E-numbers are ordinary substances doing ordinary jobs — vitamin C is E300, the lecithin in chocolate is E322, the bicarbonate that makes a cake rise is E500 — and the number is just a standardised name, not a hazard rating. A few additives do have genuinely contested evidence behind them, and those deserve a closer look than a shrug. This page does both: it decodes the numbers you will actually meet on this site's pages, and it separates what regulators and evidence have settled from what is still argued about.
This page does not score or rank anything, and it does not tell you what to eat. It explains labels. For personal dietary advice, talk to a doctor or dietitian.
This site compares what is actually in Singapore products, page by page. This guide is the companion to those pages: it explains the codes you will meet on them. Three things it is for:
An E-number is a code for a food additive that has been evaluated and permitted for use. The "E" stands for Europe — the system began as the European approved list — but the numbering follows the International Numbering System (INS) set by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the joint FAO/WHO food standards body. Singapore uses the same INS numbers: the Food Regulations refer to additives by their INS numbers, which is why a Singapore pack can say "flavour enhancer (621)" or "permitted food additives of non-animal origin" and mean the same substances as a European pack's "E621".
The number tells you which family the additive belongs to, roughly by range:
| Range | Family | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| E100–199 | Colours | Add or restore colour — tartrazine (E102), caramel (E150), annatto (E160b), beetroot red (E162). |
| E200–299 | Preservatives | Slow spoilage by microbes — sorbates (E200–203), benzoates (E210–213), sulphites (E220–228), nitrites and nitrates (E249–252). |
| E300–399 | Antioxidants and acidity regulators | Stop fats going rancid and set acidity — ascorbic acid, vitamin C (E300), tocopherols, vitamin E (E306–309), citric acid (E330), phosphoric acid (E338). |
| E400–499 | Thickeners, stabilisers and emulsifiers | Give body, hold mixtures together, keep textures stable — lecithin (E322), carrageenan (E407), xanthan gum (E415), mono- and diglycerides (E471), modified starches (E1400–1450). |
| E500–599 | Acidity regulators and anti-caking agents | Control acidity and stop powders clumping — sodium bicarbonate (E500), sodium phosphates. |
| E600–699 | Flavour enhancers | Boost savoury (umami) taste — glutamates (E620–625, including MSG E621), inosinates and guanylates (E627, E631, E635). |
| E900–999 | Miscellaneous | Glazing agents, gases, sweeteners and others — including the high-intensity sweeteners covered in the sugar and salt guide. |
| E1000 and up | Additional chemicals | Newer additions that did not fit the earlier ranges. |
Two cautions on the ranges. First, they are approximate: not every additive in a range does that range's job — many E400–499 substances have several uses. Second, the same substance can be listed either by its E-number or by its chemical name ("monosodium glutamate" and "flavour enhancer 621" are the same thing; "ascorbic acid" and "E300" are the same thing). Singapore labels use both forms, so this page gives both wherever it matters.
These are the ones a Singapore shopper meets again and again across the 112 category pages. Each entry says what it does in one line, and where it actually appears on this site — nothing here is invented, and every example is linked to the page that panelled it.
Sweeteners (E950–969, including acesulfame K E950, aspartame E951 and sucralose E955) are covered in full in the sugar and salt guide and are not repeated here, except to note that they are additives too, with the same approval system behind them.
Every permitted additive has been through a safety evaluation before it is allowed, and the evaluation produces a number called the acceptable daily intake (ADI): the amount of that substance a person can consume every day over a lifetime without appreciable risk, as judged by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) or, in Europe, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). ADIs are set with large safety margins — they are derived from the highest dose that showed no adverse effect in animal studies, divided by a safety factor (usually 100) — so occasionally exceeding an ADI is not the same as being harmed by it. Some additives have no numerical ADI at all ("ADI not specified"), which means the evaluators saw no need for a numerical limit at the levels used in food. An ADI is about the additive, not about the food it is in: a product can be high in sugar, salt or saturated fat and still have its additives well within their ADIs.
That is the system. These are the four cases shoppers actually ask about, with both sides stated.
The story starts in 1968, when a doctor wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine describing numbness, weakness and palpitations after eating at Chinese restaurants, and suggested MSG as one possible cause among several. The name "Chinese restaurant syndrome" stuck, and with it the belief that MSG causes headaches, flushing and chest tightness.
What the controlled evidence shows is different. The largest test of the claim was a multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 130 people who said they reacted to MSG (Geha et al., 2000, Journal of Nutrition): large doses of MSG given without food produced more symptoms than placebo in a small number of people, but the responses were infrequent, inconsistent on retesting, and did not appear at all when the MSG was given with food. A 1995 review for the US FDA (FASEB) reached the same shape of conclusion: MSG is safe at customary intake levels, while a very small subgroup may experience mild, transient symptoms from large doses (3 g or more) on an empty stomach. No immune mechanism — no allergy in the IgE sense — has ever been demonstrated, and in 2018 the International Headache Society removed MSG from its list of headache causes.
The regulators split on the number, not on the conclusion. JECFA has kept MSG's ADI as "not specified" — its safest category, meaning no numerical limit was considered necessary. EFSA, re-evaluating glutamates in 2017, set a group ADI of 30 mg per kg of body weight per day (about 1.8 g for a 60 kg adult, 2.1 g for a 70 kg adult), derived from a 1979 animal neurodevelopmental study, and noted that high-end exposure could exceed it — a decision other authorities have not followed, and one whose underlying study the original author later re-examined, concluding there was no evidence dietary MSG causes developmental neurotoxicity. For scale, a typical serving of food seasoned with MSG contains roughly 0.3–0.5 g.
Nitrite is the additive with the clearest trade-off on this page. Its job in cured meat is one nothing else does reliably: at 72–150 parts per million it stops Clostridium botulinum growing and producing botulinum toxin, a protection that becomes unreliable below about 60 ppm. It also keeps cured meat pink and gives it its characteristic flavour. Without it, cured meat would be a different and less safe product.
The concern is what nitrite can become. In meat, nitrite can react with amines (from the meat's own protein) to form nitrosamines, some of which are carcinogenic in animals. That is a real mechanism, and it is part of why the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified processed meat as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1) in 2015, on evidence linking processed-meat consumption to colorectal cancer. The classification is about processed meat as a whole, not about nitrite alone — smoking, salt, haem iron and cooking at high temperatures are also in the picture — but nitrosamine formation is one of the mechanisms under it. EFSA's 2023 assessment of nitrosamines in food concluded that current dietary exposure raises a health concern across all age groups in the EU, and identified meat and meat products as the most important contributing food group.
Against that, the regulators' position on the additive itself has held. EFSA's 2017 re-evaluation concluded nitrites and nitrates added to food at permitted levels were safe, and re-established the ADI for nitrite at 0.07 mg per kg of body weight per day (about 4.9 mg for a 70 kg adult) and for nitrate at 3.7 mg/kg/day. Two facts soften the picture further: most dietary nitrate comes from vegetables (about 75% of intake in France, by EFSA's figures), not from cured meat, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C, E300) — often added to cured meat alongside nitrite, and present in gastric juice — inhibits nitrosamine formation, which is why modern curing pairs the two. The EU tightened its limits in 2025 (Regulation 2023/2108): for general non-heat-treated meat products, the maximum added nitrite fell from 150 mg/kg to 80 mg/kg, with a 45 mg/kg maximum residual level.
Sulphites (E220–228) are the one case on this page where the safety issue is well established and narrow at the same time. They are safe for the general population at permitted levels — JECFA's ADI is 0–0.7 mg per kg of body weight per day as sulphur dioxide — but they can trigger reactions in people who are sensitive to them, and that sensitivity is concentrated in people with asthma: studies consistently report that about 3–10% of people with asthma are sulphite-sensitive, with reactions ranging from wheezing and chest tightness to, rarely, severe bronchospasm. A small number of people without asthma are sensitive too. There is no allergy in the IgE sense here either; the mechanism is thought to involve a partial deficiency of the enzyme sulphite oxidase in some people.
That is why sulphites are treated differently on labels: in most jurisdictions, including the EU and the US, sulphites must be declared when they exceed 10 ppm. On this site, sulphites appear in dried fruit, wine, soft drinks and some sausages — and the point for a shopper with asthma is simply to look for E220–228 (or "sulphur dioxide", "sodium metabisulphite" and the other salt names) on the list. For everyone else, the ADI is the relevant number, and ordinary dietary exposure sits well below it.
In 2007, researchers at the University of Southampton published a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (McCann et al., The Lancet 2007) funded by the UK Food Standards Agency: 153 three-year-olds and 144 eight- and nine-year-olds were given drinks containing mixtures of six synthetic colours and the preservative sodium benzoate (E211), and compared with placebo. The mixtures were associated with increased hyperactive behaviour in both age groups, including children with no ADHD diagnosis. The effect sizes were small (0.12–0.32 depending on age group and mixture) but measurable.
The six colours — tartrazine (E102), Quinoline Yellow (E104), Sunset Yellow (E110), Carmoisine (E122), Ponceau 4R (E124) and Allura Red AC (E129) — became known as the "Southampton Six". EFSA reviewed the study and concluded it provided only "limited evidence" of a small effect on activity and attention in some children. The EU did not ban the colours; instead, since 2010, Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 has required any food containing one or more of them to carry a warning on the label: "[name or E-number of the colour] may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children." The UK kept the rule after Brexit. Sodium benzoate was part of the tested mixtures but was not included in the warning requirement, because the study could not separate its effects from the colours'.
Two things matter for a Singapore shopper. First, the study tested mixtures in drinks, not single colours in ordinary food, so it does not show that one colour in one product causes hyperactivity. Second, Singapore has no equivalent warning-label rule — a cordial or sweet listing E102 and E110 here carries no warning, which is why the numbers on this page matter: the same product that must carry a warning in the EU carries none in Singapore. Whether that is a gap or a proportionate response depends on how much weight you give a small effect in some children; the regulators have weighed it differently, and this page does not settle it.
Carrageenan is the thickener most often argued about online. It is worth one paragraph because it recurs on this site's pages (luncheon meat, ham, sausages, ice cream) and because the argument is a good example of how additive debates work. Food-grade carrageenan must be distinguished from "poligeenan" (degraded carrageenan), which is not a permitted food additive at all. EFSA's 2018 re-evaluation concluded there was no safety concern for the general population at the refined exposure assessment for reported uses, and set a group ADI of 75 mg per kg of body weight per day — while noting uncertainties about its fate during digestion and recommending tighter limits on the low-molecular-weight fraction. Some laboratory and cohort studies since then have reported associations with gut permeability and type 2 diabetes, but no clinical evidence establishes food-grade carrageenan as unsafe at dietary levels. The page records the disagreement rather than picking a side: the regulator's position is "no safety concern at reported uses", and the research debate is ongoing.
Singapore's rules are set by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) under the Sale of Food Act and the Food Regulations. The structure is a permitted list, not a general permission: only food additives that are permitted under the Food Regulations may be used, and only in the specified foods and up to the specified maximum levels. The lists sit in the Schedules to the Regulations — the Third Schedule carries permitted additives with their maximum levels (for example, rosemary extract INS 392 at 50–200 ppm depending on the food), the Fifth Schedule carries permitted colouring matters, and the Eighth Schedule carries permitted enzymes — and the numbers used are the Codex INS numbers, the same numbering behind the E-numbers. SFA reviews the lists and amends them by regulation: recent amendments have added new steviol glycoside forms, extended L-theanine to salt substitutes (up to 15,000 ppm), and extended sucralose to soybean-based beverages (up to 400 ppm).
Enforcement is real and specific. In 2022, SFA suspended nine kueh manufacturers for improper use of food additives, after finding sorbic acid above the 1,000 ppm limit in two of Jian Bo Tiong Bahru Shui Kueh's products — and sorbic acid is permitted in kueh filling only, not in the kueh itself, a distinction SFA itself had initially miscommunicated to the manufacturer. The point for a shopper: the limits are per food and per part of the food, not per additive in general, which is why a preservative can be legal in one product and illegal in the next one along the shelf.
Two Singapore differences worth knowing. First, Singapore has no equivalent of the EU's Southampton warning labels — the six colours carry no warning here. Second, Singapore labelling requires additives to be declared by their function and name or INS number, which is why Singapore packs say things like "permitted food additives of non-animal origin" and "permitted food conditioners" where a European pack would just print the E-number. Where to check: SFA's legislation pages carry the Food Regulations and their amendments; the Food Regulations themselves are the authoritative source, and this page does not reproduce their schedules — they change by amendment, so check the current version before relying on any single limit.
Three checks, in order, for any ingredient list:
Pages where additives dominate, and where these checks are most useful: instant noodles (621/627/631/635, E471, E412, E500), canned luncheon meat (E250, E407), ham and cold cuts (nitrite salt, phosphates, E621/E627/E631), bacon (E250/E251), hot dogs and other sausages (E250, E621, E471, E415, E211), biscuits and cookies (E322, E471, E102/E110, E150), soft drinks and cola (E211, E330, E338, E150), cordials and syrup drinks (E102, E110, E122, E129, E211, E330, E415), canned soup (E621/E627/E631, E150), margarine (E471), ice cream (E322, E471, E412, E415, E407, E102/E110) and sandwich bread (E471).