At McCain, we love simple food. Our policy is to remove all the E numbers wherever we can. But sometimes we have to include E numbers, so where we do, we thought we'd explain what they are and why we use them in certain products.
E numbers are simply codes for standard food ingredients that have all passed strict safety tests and are considered safe to use throughout the European Union (the 'E' of an E number stands for 'Europe')*. While many additives are artificially made, some occur naturally. For example, curcumin, which comes from the turmeric root is sometimes used to colour foods.
Many of us worry about E numbers and at McCain we're no different. We believe our ingredients should be as natural as possible. We'd love to get rid of all E numbers, so that our products only contained the types of ingredients you'd find in your kitchen cupboard. Unfortunately though, some E numbers are trickier to remove than others. For example, sodium nitrite (E250) is used as a preservative in bacon and ham. This means that we can't make a ham sandwich without it! There are a few ingredients with E numbers used in most breads, too, which means our Paninis and pizzas contain them.
*Source, the European Food Council website