E Numbers are numeric codes given to food additives that have been sanctioned and approved by the European Union. The EU classifies additives into three groups:

• Sweeteners
• Colours
• Everything other than colours and sweeteners

It is law in the EU that E numbers or their named-equivalents must be included in the ingredients list of all packaged processed foods. For example, the Ingredients panel on the back of a 500g tub of Bisto includes the numbers E150c, E621, E635 and E322. These translate, respectively, into ammonia caramel, monosodium glutamate, disodium 5'-ribonucleotides and lecithins.

You can read a full list of E numbers at the University of Reading's Food Biosciences website, http://www.fst.rdg.ac.uk/foodlaw/additive.htm.

If you are a representative of an EU member state, then you can apply for the inclusion of a new additive into the approved list by writing to

DG Sanco,

European Commission,

Belgium