What is E150d? Sulphite Ammonia Caramel Explained
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E150d is Sulphite Ammonia Caramel — a colour (heated sugar) used in sweets and confectionery, soft drinks.
What is E150d (Sulphite Ammonia Caramel)?
E150d is Sulphite Ammonia Caramel, a food additive classified as a colour that give food its colour. A colour (heated sugar) used in sweets and confectionery, soft drinks. You'll find it in sweets and confectionery, soft drinks, cake icing and many other packaged foods. Sulphite Ammonia Caramel is one of the better-known food additives and appears regularly in label-reading guides and dietary discussions. Like every E-number, E150d has been authorised for use in food following an EFSA safety evaluation — though authorisation doesn't mean concern-free, as the safety section below explains.
Where is E150d found?
E150d (Sulphite Ammonia Caramel) is found in sweets and confectionery, soft drinks, cake icing, jams and preserves, ready meals, desserts.
- sweets and confectionery
- soft drinks
- cake icing
- jams and preserves
- ready meals
- desserts
Is E150d safe?
E150d is authorised in the EU and UK but carries genuine concerns. E150d is a sulphite or sulphite-related additive — sulphites are declared allergens that can trigger asthma and respiratory reactions in sensitive people (estimated 5–10% of asthmatics). For most people consuming Sulphite Ammonia Caramel in typical quantities, health effects are unlikely — but the caution flag reflects either active scientific debate, mandatory warning labels, allergen status, or conditions attached to its authorisation.
EFSA opinion: Sulphite Ammonia Caramel — status Some concerns.
Check the calorie content of foods containing E150d. If you’re pregnant, see our pregnancy food safety guide.
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E150d FAQs
What is E150d in food?
E150d is Sulphite Ammonia Caramel — a colour (heated sugar) used in sweets and confectionery, soft drinks.
Is E150d safe to eat?
E150d is authorised in the EU and UK but carries genuine concerns. E150d is a sulphite or sulphite-related additive — sulphites are declared allergens that can trigger asthma and respiratory reactions
Is E150d vegan?
E150d (Sulphite Ammonia Caramel) is vegan. It is derived from heated sugar, with no animal involvement in standard food production.
Is E150d halal?
E150d (Sulphite Ammonia Caramel) is halal. It is derived from heated sugar, which involves no haram sources.
The byproduct behind E150d's caution rating
E150d (sulphite ammonia caramel) is made by heating sugar with both ammonium and sulphite compounds — the combination that gives it the deep, stable colour and acid-resistance that makes it the standard choice for cola and other dark soft drinks. That same reaction, however, also produces a trace byproduct called 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI). The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies 4-MEI as Group 2B, ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’, based on tumours seen in mice given very high doses. The EU caps 4-MEI at 250mg per kg of the finished colour, and EFSA's own 2011 re-evaluation concluded that realistic dietary exposure to caramel colours, including E150d, was ‘not of concern’ for carcinogenicity — but the IARC classification is also real, which is why this page shows a caution rating rather than a plain safe one: two reputable scientific bodies looking at the same compound have reached different emphases, and this page reflects that rather than picking a side.
Why California and Europe disagree on this one
This is one of the clearer examples of different regulators drawing different lines from similar evidence. California listed 4-MEI under its Proposition 65 right-to-know law in 2011, and set a 29-microgram-per-day threshold above which a product must carry a cancer warning label — a single 12oz can of cola has been measured at around 130 micrograms of 4-MEI, which is why some US manufacturers reformulated their caramel colouring specifically to cut 4-MEI levels after 2012. The FDA, meanwhile, has not restricted 4-MEI directly and requires only that caramel colouring be declared on the label, while EFSA's group Acceptable Daily Intake of 300mg per kg of body weight per day for the caramel colours as a class reflects its 2011 conclusion that typical exposure isn't a carcinogenicity concern. None of this means one regulator is right and the others wrong — it reflects genuinely different risk-assessment philosophies (precautionary threshold vs. exposure-based ADI), and it's why the same ingredient can carry a warning label in California and none at all in the EU or UK.
Where E150d actually turns up
E150d is overwhelmingly a cola and dark-soft-drink ingredient — surveys of soft drink products have found it in roughly one in ten, concentrated almost entirely in colas and similar dark fizzy drinks. Outside soft drinks, it also colours soy sauce, dark beers and some whiskies, and gravies, sauces and vinegars where a stable, acid-tolerant dark colour is needed. It's worth distinguishing from its close relatives: E150a (plain caramel, made with no ammonium or sulphite, carrying none of the 4-MEI concern) and E150c (ammonia caramel, used in some baked goods and beers) are chemically different processes with different safety profiles — ‘caramel colour’ on a label doesn't tell you which of the four you're getting, only the specific E150-with-a-letter code does.
Common myths about E150d, checked against the evidence
“E150d has been proven to cause cancer in humans”
Not established. The IARC classification (Group 2B) is based on high-dose animal studies and means 'possibly carcinogenic' — a data-driven caution category, not a confirmed human carcinogen finding. EFSA's own 2011 review concluded typical dietary exposure to E150d was not a carcinogenicity concern.
“If the EU allows it, the cancer-warning angle in California must be baseless”
It reflects a different regulatory approach rather than different facts. California's Prop 65 sets a precautionary warning threshold from the same animal data IARC used; EFSA's group ADI is an exposure-based safety margin. Both bodies are working from overlapping evidence — they just draw the line in different places.
Further reading
Related Colours additives
Also check: safe for cats? · safe for dogs? · calorie checker · medication interactions
Data: Open Food Facts (ODbL) · EFSA