Sodium Benzoate (E211): what it is and why it's flagged
Short answer
Sodium Benzoate (E211) is a food additive assigned the E-number E211. Preservative, controversial with vitamin C. It is approved for use in food, and Olive Detective flags it as a moderate concern so the additive load of a product is visible at a glance rather than buried in the ingredient list.
How it appears on a label
Depending on the market, the same additive is written as Sodium Benzoate (E211), as the bare code E211, or under a common name with no code at all. EU labels favour the E-number; US labels usually spell the additive out. The scanner reads the parsed additives taxonomy, so all three forms resolve to the same flag.
How much weight it carries in a score
Additives are one of four inputs to the 0–100 score, alongside nutrition quality, NOVA processing level and organic status. A single flagged additive does not sink a score. What moves a score is additive load — several contested additives together, which in practice almost always means an ultra-processed product, and the processing is scored too.
What this page does not claim
That sodium benzoate (e211) will harm you. Every additive here has passed a regulatory approval; the disagreement is about long-term exposure and about where the burden of proof sits, not about acute safety. Olive Detective reports what is in the product and why the ingredient is contested, then leaves the decision with you.
Other additives we flag
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