How can you find out which food additives a product contains?

Food additives are included in the list of ingredients on a food product’s label. The type of additive is listed, for example gelling agent or emulsifier, followed by the specific name or E-number of the additive. As an example, the label might say Gelling agent: gellan gum. It could also say Gelling agent: E418.

Modified starches are slightly different. The label will simply say ‘modified starch’, plus the specific origin if it could contain gluten. So a starch produced from wheat will always be labelled as ‘modified wheat starch’. All additives that might produce an allergic reaction must be must include a reference to the allergen on the label; an example here would be Emulsifier: soya lecithins.

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