Home › Ingredients › Carmoisine (E122)
Is carmoisine (E122) safe?
- WHO (JECFA) and EU (EFSA): both set the safe daily limit at 4 mg per kg of body weight
- US: never approved for food — American labels can't carry it
- EU & UK: permitted within limits, but products must warn it "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children"
- India: permitted within limits — and no warning required
- The catch: EFSA found that at the legal maximum levels, toddlers and children at high consumption go over the limit
- LabelCop: flags E122 on every label — strictest regulator wins
What is carmoisine?
- A synthetic red azo dye — deep red to maroon, cheap, stable in heat and acid
- One job in food: making things look red, pink or maroon
- Label names: Carmoisine, Azorubine, E122, INS 122, Food Red 3, C.I. 14720
- Watch the name: carmoisine is not carmine or cochineal (E120). E120 is extracted from insects; carmoisine is entirely synthetic and contains no animal material
Which foods contain it?
- Jellies, jelly crystals and table jellies
- Boiled sweets, party confectionery and cake decorations
- Biscuit creams, wafer fillings and icings
- Soft-drink concentrates, squashes and syrups
- Flavoured yoghurts, blancmanges and packet desserts
- Some tinned and glacé fruit, and red-coloured sauces
- In India: very common in mithai and barfi, rose-flavoured drinks and sharbats, jellies, red bakery items and soft-drink concentrates. Look for INS 122 — and note that many Indian labels declare only "permitted synthetic food colour" without naming which one
One of the "Southampton Six"
- In 2007 a UK Food Standards Agency-funded study at the University of Southampton tested six synthetic colours plus the preservative sodium benzoate in children
- The mixtures were linked to increased hyperactivity and inattention in some children in the trial
- Carmoisine was one of the six, alongside tartrazine (E102), quinoline yellow (E104), sunset yellow (E110), ponceau 4R (E124) and allura red (E129)
- What the EU did: not a ban — a mandatory warning on the label from July 2010
- What the UK did: the FSA asked manufacturers to remove them voluntarily; most large UK brands did
- Important limit on the evidence: the study tested mixtures, not carmoisine alone, so it cannot show which ingredient did what. Regulators have described the effects as modest and variable between children
What the regulators actually say
| Regulator | Status | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| EFSA / European Union | Permitted within limits + mandatory warning | Authorised as E122 in specified foods. EFSA's 2009 re-evaluation kept the acceptable daily intake at 4 mg/kg body weight per day, but concluded that at the 95th percentile of exposure, intake estimates for 1- to 10-year-old children could be above it. Since July 2010, Annex V of Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 has required foods containing it to state that it "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children". |
| FDA (United States) | Not permitted — never approved for food | Carmoisine has never been listed as an approved colour additive for food in the US. Nothing was withdrawn or revoked from the food list; it simply never entered it. The FDA treats imported food declaring carmoisine as non-compliant. |
| FSSAI (India) | Permitted within limits | INS 122 is one of the eight synthetic colours on India's permitted list, allowed only in specified food categories within prescribed limits — a general ceiling of 100 ppm for most standardised foods, higher for certain beverage categories. No child-behaviour warning is required on Indian labels. |
| WHO / JECFA | ADI 0–4 mg/kg bw/day | The joint FAO/WHO expert committee allocated an acceptable daily intake of 0–4 mg/kg body weight for azorubine, based on long-term feeding studies in rats and mice. That figure has not been revised since. |
| UK / FSA | Permitted within limits + warning retained | The UK kept the warning-label requirement after leaving the EU. The FSA also asked industry to phase the Southampton colours out voluntarily, which most major UK brands did — so carmoisine now turns up mainly on imports, party-aisle sweets and smaller brands. |
The bit most articles skip: legal maximum vs actual use
- EFSA has assessed carmoisine exposure twice, and the two answers are different — because the assumptions are different
- 2009 (maximum permitted levels): if manufacturers used the legal maximums, 1- to 10-year-old children at the high end of consumption could exceed the 4 mg/kg limit
- 2015 (refined, using actual reported usage): no population group exceeded the limit at either the mean or high exposure level
- But: in the same 2015 assessment, the maximum-permitted-level scenario still exceeded the limit at the high level for toddlers and children
- What that means in practice: the reassurance depends on manufacturers using well under the legal ceiling. The law permits more than the exposure maths comfortably allows
- And the Indian gap: EFSA's refined work used European consumption data and European industry usage. No equivalent refined exposure assessment for Indian diets is published — where sweets, sharbats and coloured confectionery are eaten differently
Why do regulators disagree?
- Not on the toxicology. EFSA and JECFA landed on the same 4 mg/kg figure — this is one of the rare additives where the two big scientific bodies agree on the number
- The US split is historical, not scientific. The US colour-additive system requires each colour to be positively listed. Carmoisine never entered the food list, so "not permitted" here reflects a different approval route rather than a safety verdict against it
- The EU chose disclosure over prohibition. After the Southampton study, a warning label let shoppers decide — and in practice most manufacturers reformulated rather than print it
- India chose permission without disclosure. The dye is legal within limits, and no cautionary text is required, so Indian shoppers get no signal from the label at all
- Both readings are defensible on incomplete evidence. We show you the disagreement rather than quietly picking a side
Carmoisine vs carmine — the name trap
- Carmoisine (E122): synthetic azo dye, no animal content — suitable for vegetarian, vegan and Jain diets on origin grounds
- Carmine / cochineal (E120): a completely different red, extracted from cochineal insects — not vegetarian or vegan
- The two names sit one letter apart and both mean "red" on a label. Plenty of shoppers avoid the wrong one
- If your reason for avoiding a red colour is animal origin, E120 is the one to check
- If your reason is synthetic azo dyes and the child-behaviour warning, E122 is the one to check
The India label reality
- India permits a colour the US does not allow in food at all — the widest kind of split you'll find on a shelf
- Indian rules require no child-behaviour warning, so the same jelly can carry the warning in London and nothing in Mumbai
- Many Indian labels print only "permitted synthetic food colour (INS 122)" — or just the class name, with no number at all
- Loose mithai and sweets sold unpackaged carry no ingredients list to read in the first place
- Barcode-based scanning apps miss most of this, because regional Indian sweets, wafer and beverage-concentrate brands are largely absent from global barcode databases
- Reading the printed label is the only reliable way to catch it
- E122 is a high-risk flag in LabelCop
- Why: it's one of the Southampton Six — EU law has required a child-behaviour warning since 2010, it is not permitted in the United States, and it may cause allergic reactions in sensitive people
- Rule: strictest regulator wins — so we flag it in India and everywhere else it's legal
- The product's score takes a penalty — and you see the flag, the reason and the sources. No black box
Frequently asked questions
Is carmoisine banned in the United States?
It's not permitted in food — but it was never approved in the first place, so nothing was banned or withdrawn. Carmoisine has never been on the US list of approved colour additives for food. That's different from Red 3, which the FDA approved and later revoked in 2025.
Is carmoisine the same as carmine or cochineal?
No — and this one catches people out constantly. Carmoisine (E122) is a synthetic azo dye with no animal content. Carmine or cochineal (E120) is a separate red made from insects. If you avoid insect-derived ingredients, E120 is the one to look for, not E122.
Is carmoisine banned in the EU?
No — it's permitted within limits. Since July 2010, EU law has required foods containing it to warn that it "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children". Most manufacturers reformulated rather than carry the warning, which is why it's now uncommon on mainstream EU shelves. That's a commercial choice, not a prohibition.
Is it allowed in India?
Yes. FSSAI permits INS 122 in specified food categories within prescribed limits — generally up to 100 ppm in most standardised foods, higher in some beverage categories. India requires no child-behaviour warning, so the same dye can appear on an Indian label with no cautionary text.
Do EFSA and the WHO disagree about the safe limit?
On the number, no — both sit at 4 mg per kg of body weight per day, which is unusual. The nuance is exposure. EFSA's 2009 assessment found children could exceed that limit if the legal maximum levels were used; its 2015 refined assessment, based on actual reported usage, found no group exceeded it — while the maximum-permitted-level scenario still did for toddlers and children at the high end.
Can carmoisine cause allergic reactions?
Sensitivity reactions have been reported in some people, which is why we describe it as something that may cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals rather than a general risk. It isn't a declarable allergen anywhere, so it won't appear in a bolded allergen box — only in the ingredients list itself.
How do I avoid it?
Read the ingredients list for Carmoisine, Azorubine, E122, INS 122 or Food Red 3 — or scan the label with LabelCop and it's flagged automatically, with the regulator reasoning shown.
LabelCop reads any food label you photograph and flags additives like E122 instantly — no barcode needed.
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EFSA (2009): Scientific opinion on the re-evaluation of Azorubine/Carmoisine (E 122) · EFSA (2009): updated safety advice on six food colours · EFSA (2015): refined exposure assessment for Azorubine/Carmoisine (E 122) · Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 — Annex V warning-label requirement · FDA: summary of colour additives for use in the United States · WHO/JECFA additives database: azorubine (INS 122) · FAO/WHO JECFA monograph: azorubine · FSSAI: Food Safety and Standards regulations — permitted colours and limits
Related ingredients: Ponceau 4R (E124) · Tartrazine (E102 / Yellow 5) · Sunset yellow (E110)
This article explains regulatory status and published scientific assessments in plain English. It is not medical advice.