BfR (Germany): glycerol (E 422) in slush drinks, cakes and chewing gum — according to BfR, EFSA’s acute reference dose of 125 mg/kg body weight for a single drink also applies to solid foods; official control measurements also found glycerol in packaged fine bakery wares
On 6 November 2026 the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) published questions and answers on glycerol in food. Glycerol is authorised as additive E 422 without a maximum level (quantum satis), and manufacturers do not have to declare its content — only official food control measurements show how much a product contains.
- Glycerol is authorised in the EU as additive E 422 in many foods — in flavoured drinks such as slush drinks and in solid foods, e.g. bakery wares — without a set maximum level (quantum satis). It is used as a humectant, stabiliser, emulsifier or release agent; it is not authorised as a sweetener, although it tastes sweet.
- Manufacturers do not have to declare the glycerol content. Official food control measurement data found glycerol not only in slush drinks but also in solid foods, e.g. packaged fine bakery wares. A search of the Mintel GNPD new products database for the last 5 years (BfR, 2026) found glycerol in the ingredients most often in bakery products — especially packaged pound cakes — and also in snacks, chewing gum and sweets, and chocolate; BfR notes that the database covers only new packaged products.
- In 2017 EFSA saw no concern for the general population and did not set an acceptable daily intake (ADI). Recently, headaches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, dizziness, cranial nerve palsies, double vision and hearing impairment have been observed in children after slush drinks.
- In its February 2025 assessment BfR used as reference point the lowest therapeutically effective dose (lowering intracranial pressure) — 250 mg of glycerol per kilogram of body weight. The concentrations reported showed that younger children can reach this dose by drinking less than 200 ml of the drink.
- In March 2026 EFSA set an acute reference dose (ARfD) of 125 mg of glycerol per kilogram of body weight for a single consumption of a glycerol-containing drink. In its opinion No 049/2026 of 8 September 2026 BfR concluded that glycerol from solid foods is not absorbed more slowly than from drinks, so this ARfD can also be applied to solid foods such as fine bakery wares — unless new human studies with a solid matrix justify a different conclusion.
- BfR explains why not everyone reacts the same way: in the study by Avery et al. (2010) of almost 200 children and adolescents, intracranial pressure ranged from 6 to 47 cm of water, and halving it from the lower limit of the reference range (11.5 cm) can result in less than 6 cm — the threshold for headache attributed to spontaneous intracranial hypotension according to the International Headache Society (2018). Authorities in the UK and Ireland (FSA, FSS, FSAI) are also looking at glycerol in food.
Source: BfR — Slush ice, cake, chewing gum: glycerol and its use in food (FAQ, 06.11.2026)