Are INS numbers the same as E numbers?

If you shop in India, Australia, New Zealand or a number of other markets, the numbers on your ingredient lists are prefixed INS rather than E, or carry no prefix at all. The same preservative that reads “E202” on a European packet reads “INS 202” or just “202” on yours.

It is the same substance. The interesting part is what each prefix is claiming.

What INS is

INS stands for the International Numbering System for Food Additives, maintained by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the joint food standards body of the FAO and WHO.

Its own guideline says it “is intended as a harmonised naming system for food additives as an alternative to the use of the specific name, which may be lengthy.”

A naming system. That is the entire ambition, and Codex is unusually direct about the limits of it. The same paragraph continues: “Inclusion in the INS does not imply approval by Codex for use as food additives. The list may include those additives that have not been evaluated by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives.”

So an INS number is a catalogue entry. It means somebody needed a short way to write a long chemical name. It does not mean anyone assessed it.

What the E adds

The E prefix is European, and it does mean assessment. An additive carries an E number because it has been evaluated and authorised for use in the European Union, which is why the same digits with an E in front of them are making a claim that INS alone is not.

That is a real difference and it runs the opposite way to most people’s instinct. The E is widely read as the sinister part, the mark of something industrial. It is the reassuring part. It is the INS number, standing alone, that certifies nothing.

What neither of them tells you

Three things, and they are the ones people most often want.

Whether it matters to you. A number is an identity, not a personal verdict. Carmine is E120 and INS 120, and it is a perfectly ordinary red colouring that is also an animal product and an occasional allergen. The number carries none of that.

What it is made from. INS 471 and E471 are both mono- and diglycerides, which can be made from palm oil or from lard, and the number is identical either way.

What it is doing in the product. Codex used to group numbers roughly by function, and says so, but adds that “the positioning of a food additive in the list can no longer be taken as an indication of the purpose, although this will often be the case.” The list outgrew its own scheme. So the old trick of reading the hundreds digit as a category is a rough guide at best.

The practical version

If you are looking up a number from an Indian or Australian label, drop the INS and search the digits, or search with an E in front. You will find the same substance, and everything written about E202 applies to INS 202 because they are the same molecule.

What does not transfer is the permission. An additive authorised in the EU is not automatically authorised where you are, and the reverse is true too. For which substances your own regulator allows, the answer is your national food authority, not the number.

More on how to read a list full of numbers is in the guide to E numbers.