Food additives are commonly used in the U.S. food supply to add flavor, texture, or a longer shelf life to products. They can come from natural sources, like spices and fruit peels, or they can be man-made. Some food additives have been shown to negatively affect human health, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has prohibited them from being used.
Food additives are like they sound: They're substances that are added to foods during processing. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act defines them as substances that are used to become a component of a food or affect the characteristics of the food. They must be authorized by the FDA before being used in products by manufacturers.
Food additives can be used to give a smooth texture and make the food more appealing to eat, add nutrients or color, enhance flavor, or extend the item's freshness. You may sometimes see food additives referred to by different names, such as additives in food, artificial flavor, or artificial color.
Food additives can be either natural (such as herbs, spices, seeds, and fruit peels) or man-made (such as artificial sweeteners or dyes). “Labeling laws do not require indication of whether they are natural or not in ingredients lists but often, the word ‘artificial' is included on the label [if man-made],” says Kathleen J. Melanson, PhD, RD, a nutrition science professor, graduate program director, and human energy balance laboratory director at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. “That is a clear guideline for consumers.”
There can be indirect food additives as well, which aren't found directly in the product or have an effect on the food, but rather come into contact with the item during the packaging and manufacturing process. Indirect food additives could include paper and adhesives, for example.
There are several categories of food additives, including colorants, sweeteners, antioxidants and preservatives, emulsifiers, and thickeners.
Colorants
Colorants change or enhance the color of the food to make it more appealing to consume. Natural food colorants include beets for red, spinach for green, or carrots for orange. But when discussing food additives, the concern is mostly about synthetic colorants, which are essentially food dyes that enhance the visual appeal of the product. Abbey Thiel, PhD, a food scientist and the founder of Abbey the Food Scientist in Madison, Wisconsin, says common synthetic food colorants include:
Quinoline yellow
Tartrazine
Red 40
Yellow 5
Yellow 6
Blue 1
Blue 2
Sweeteners
Sweeteners are added to foods to enhance the sweetness.
Common sweeteners include:
Aspartame
Stevia
Sucralose
Acesulfame potassium
Saccharin
Antioxidants and Preservatives
Antioxidants, which occur naturally or can be man-made, are used to prevent chemical reactions that lead to bad taste or smell, while preservatives, which are also natural (like salt) or can be man-made, are used to keep a food from spoiling.
Some widely used antioxidants are:
Phenols
Aminophenols
Aromatic amines
Vitamin A
Vitamin E
Common preservative food additives include:
Benzoic acid
Sorbic acid
Sodium sulfite
Emulsifiers
Emulsifiers add smoothness to the food and keep it from separating.
Examples include:
Glycerol monostearate
Lecithin
Propylene glycol monoesters (PGME)
Sorbitol-derived sorbitan esters
Polysorbate fatty acid esters
Calcium stearoyl lactylate (CSL)
Sodium stearoyl lactylate (SSL)
Propylene glycol alginate (PGA)
Gum acacia
Thickeners
These help add texture and mass to food items. Dr. Thiel says common thickeners include:
Xanthan gum
Guar gum
Locust bean gum
Pectin
Cornstarch
Rice flour
The FDA regulates direct food additives, or substances that are added to a food for a specific purpose and identified on a food ingredient label. Before a food manufacturer can use an additive in its products, the FDA must approve the additive. First, the manufacturer submits a petition outlining the ways the substance will be used. The FDA then consults with the U.S. Department of Agriculture if the food is to be used in meat or poultry items.
The food additive must be shown in research to be safe at its intended level of use. The studies required depend on whether the concern level is low, medium, or high. Concern is gauged based on the additive's toxicological potential as shown by its chemical structure. For instance, low-concern additives are recommended to have short-term rodent toxicity tests, while a high-level concern additive is recommended to have longer-term studies, studies involving humans, and reproduction and developmental toxicity studies, among others.
Based on this research, the FDA will determine how much of the additive is safe to consume per day over a person's lifetime, and then decides if it will authorize use of the additive. The FDA can also specify how much can be used, what foods it can be used in, and how it's identified on food labels.
This acronym is used for substances that have been studied and deemed safe by experts, and do not need to be approved for use by the FDA before they are added to products in the food supply.
The way standard food additives enter the food supply are different from how these “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) ingredients do. “The former requires public notice and review of safety data by the FDA, and the latter does not,” says Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, the director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston. Companies are allowed to determine whether new chemicals are considered food additives or GRAS ingredients.
Dr. Mozaffarian referenced a 2022 report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit that advocates for safer agricultural practices and chemicals, which suggested nearly 99 percent of new chemicals that entered the food supply since 2000 did so via the GRAS pathway. “Industry is choosing for themselves what to do, what's safe, and when to report it, which in practice means almost never,” Mozaffarian says.
The term GRAS stems from a 1958 law that required companies to show the ingredients in their foods were safe and established an exception for common ingredients. “The original intent of GRAS was to exempt common cooking ingredients that were used before 1958 — like salt, vinegar, or baking soda — from lengthy approval processes,” Thiel says. Now it allows companies to bypass FDA oversight when introducing new ingredients, she says. Mozaffarian says the GRAS pathway was initially intended to be the exception (and used only for common ingredients), but now the food additive pathway has become the exception instead.
GRAS ingredients aren't considered food additives, though that's somewhat controversial. “Critics argue that many GRAS substances should actually be classified as food additives, which require stricter toxicology testing and FDA approval,” Thiel says.
Examples of GRAS Ingredients
There are hundreds of GRAS ingredients that have been recognized to be safe for consumption, including:
Baking soda, to help baked goods rise
Salt, to add flavor and act as a preservative
Gelatin, to gel, emulsify, and thicken
Cornstarch, to thicken
Lactic acid, to add flavor and act as a preservative
Soy sauce, for extra flavor
Vitamin A, to fortify foods
Some critics argue that the way GRAS ingredients are tested is insufficient to prove their safety. Namely, most of the GRAS testing involves animals and uses one additive at a time, Dr. Melanson says. “These days, with all the ultra-processed foods and beverages on the market, large combinations of food additives are being consumed,” she says. “Some products have more than eight artificial additives just on their own, and consumers may be eating them with other products that contain yet another combination.” She says that research should address that and determine whether it's safe. “That being said, innumerable combinations are possible, so it is not feasible to test them all,” Melanson says. “This is another reason why minimizing the number of different ultra-processed foods in people's diets is advisable.”
It’s rare to have a reaction to food additives, but it does happen. It may present as diarrhea, gas, bloating, or an upset stomach. The good news is most reactions will go away within one day.
Sulfites, which act as a preservative to keep fruits and vegetables fresh, are a common food additive that can trigger a reaction. Sulfites have led to asthma-related issues, anaphylaxis, and urticaria or hives. Aspartame, parabens, tartrazine (a dye), monosodium glutamate, glutamic acid, nitrates/nitrites, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), and benzoates may also lead to adverse reactions.
The U.S. federal government has banned certain food additives because human or animal research has found they pose health risks.
Food Additives Banned in the U.S.
Banned food additives include:
Calamus, calamus extract, calamus oil may cause intestinal cancer.
Cinnamyl anthranilate may cause liver cancer.
Cobaltous chloride may cause heart, lung, kidney, and liver damage or skin reactions.
Cobalt sulfate may harm the heart.
Coumarin may cause liver damage.
Cyclamate may cause cancer and damage to the testes.
Diethyl pyrocarbonate forms a carcinogen when combined with ammonia.
Dulcin may cause liver cancer.
Monochloroacetic acid is toxic.
Nordihydroguaiaretic acid may be toxic to kidneys.
P-4000 may be toxic.
Safrole may promote liver cancer.
Thiourea has a risk of liver cancer.
FD&C Red No. 3 (dye) increases the risk of cancer and is linked to brain development issues and behavioral difficulties in children. In early 2025, Red No. 3 was officially banned in the United States, though manufacturers have until 2027 to remove it from their products.
Food Additives Banned in California
Other additives have been banned by regulators in California but not in the United States as a whole. Because the California market is so large, having an additive banned there motivates some food manufacturers to remove it from their products altogether and find a safer alternative, so consumers elsewhere may see a trickle-down effect. These banned ingredients include:
Potassium bromate is associated with cancer.
Propylparaben may disrupt hormones and the reproductive system.
Brominated vegetable oil may harm to the nervous and reproductive systems and thyroid function.
Red Dye No. 40 is a risk to children’s brain development, may lead to behavioral difficulties, and may include carcinogenic components.
Yellow Dye No. 5 is associated with harm to child brain development, behavioral difficulties, and genotoxicity, and may include carcinogenic components.
Yellow Dye No. 6 has risks for children’s brain development and behavioral difficulties, may include carcinogenic components, and may increase cancer risk.
Blue Dye No. 1 poses risks to children’s brain development and is linked to behavioral difficulties.
Blue Dye No. 2 poses risks to children’s brain development, may lead to behavioral difficulties, and may increase the risk of cancer.
Green Dye No. 3 is associated with risks to brain development and behavioral difficulties, and may increase the risk of cancer.
Food Additives Banned in Europe
Europe has banned additives that the United States has not. “The U.S. and European food systems operate under fundamentally different regulatory principles, shaping how food safety, ingredients, and quality standards are enforced,” Thiel says. Europe, for instance, follows the precautionary principle, which means that if a substance's safety is uncertain, it can be banned or restricted until proven safe. The United States, on the other hand, assumes a substance is safe until there is proven harm, so these ingredients are generally allowed unless significant risks have been found through science, she says. It's also worth noting that some additives have been banned in the United States but have not been banned in Europe, Melanson says.
The following food additives were studied in humans and animals and have been banned in Europe but not in the United States.
Titanium dioxide: risk of damage to DNA, the nervous system, and the immune system
Potassium bromate: risk of cancer
Azodicarbonamide: risk of carcinogenic by-products
BHA and BHT: risk of cancer and hormone disruption
Bovine growth hormone: concerns about increased cancer risk and animal health
There's another category of food additives called indirect food additives. These are substances that come into contact with the food during the packaging, storage, or handling process. These indirect food additives are also regulated by the FDA.
The category of indirect food additives includes chemicals from plastic, glues, dyes, paper, cardboard, and different types of coatings. For instance, there may be a substance used to prevent grease from leaking through the packaging or to make an adhesive stick to the packaging. Other examples include PFAS chemicals, melamine, and microplastics.
There's some concern that indirect food additives may harm health. For instance, the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), which has been banned from being used in baby bottles and sippy cups, remains allowed to be used as an indirect food additive. It's allowed to be used in plastic containers, and phthalates (found in plastic food wrap and storage containers) are also permitted, both of which may disrupt the endocrine system. Endocrine disruptors can change the way hormones typically work, and when ingested they can slow the immune system and compromise thyroid function.
Food additives are substances that are added to enhance or change food in some way, such as by altering texture, flavor, or nutrient profile.
Several food additives have been banned by the United States, and others have been banned in California and in Europe, because of the potential dangers research has shown they pose to human health.
Indirect food additives are substances used in packaging or in the manufacturing process rather than added to the food.
A category called Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) includes ingredients that have been deemed appropriate to add to foods by experts or the FDA.
