The additive silver (E 174) might get banned soon.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has recently updated its scientific opinion on E 174, a food additive used primarily for decorative purposes in confectionery, coatings, fillings, and spirit drinks. [1]
This update reaffirms concerns first raised in 2016, where the EFSA concluded that the available data was insufficient to assess the safety of silver. The major issues included limited characterization of E 174 (e.g. quantity of nanoparticles), toxicity and genotoxicity and release of ionic silver. [2]
Following this, a call for data was issued to food business operators. Only one operator submitted data, which could not provide the requested additional information and failed to address key concerns. The EFSA considered that the genotoxicity data and sub-chronic toxicity data were inadequate.
Consequently, the EFSA remained unable to confirm the safety of silver as a food additive due to significant data deficiencies.
It is now up to the European Commission in the coming months to decide whether to ban the use of silver (E174) as food additive across the EU.
[1] https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9316 [2] https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/4364
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