On October 17, the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) Expert Panel on Food Additives and Flavoring Agents formally /confirm/ied, after a thorough evaluation, that the additive silicon dioxide (E 551), as applied to the food industry, does not pose a safety concern to any population, including infants and young children under 16 weeks of age, in its current scope of use.

E551, also known as synthetic amorphous silica (SAS), is commonly used as an anti-caking agent that prevents caking in products such as powdered foods, flavorings and milk powders, helping to improve food production efficiency, ease of handling and sustainability.

One of the core aspects of this assessment is the potential risk assessment of nanoparticles that may be present in SAS, and EFSA's in-depth research has shown that these nanoparticles tend to aggregate to form larger particles in food applications, and thus do not pose a safety risk at current levels of application. It is important to note that EFSA did not set a specific upper daily intake limit for E551, but rather assessed and confirmed the safety of the additive based on the scientific principle of margin of safety.

Silica has been approved as a legal food additive since the 1960s and continues to be widely used in the food industry, and EFSA has further confirmed that the solubility of SAS in water is extremely low, and that most of it will be eliminated from the body by physiological processes after ingestion. In response to concerns about genotoxicity raised in earlier studies, a rigorous analysis by an EFSA panel of experts confirmed that there is no risk of genotoxicity associated with E551.