E126 - Ponceau 6R
What it is and how it is used
Ponceau 6R is a synthetic red azo dye, one of a large family of ponceau reds developed for the textile industry in the nineteenth century and subsequently borrowed by food manufacturers. Only one of that family survives on the Great Britain list.
Ponceau 6R is not it. The permitted red azo colours here are E 122 azorubine/carmoisine, E 123 amaranth, E 124 ponceau 4R and E 129 allura red AC.
Foods commonly containing it
None in Great Britain. The number appears in historic formulation records and in product databases built from mixed international sources.
Safety summary
Ponceau 6R (E 126) does not appear in the FSA Register of Food Additive Authorisations, the official list of additives authorised for the market in Great Britain, and it is not on the DHSC/FSA list of approved additives and E numbers. On the current GB list it is not an authorised food additive.
No current GB or EFSA acceptable daily intake exists for it, and we will not quote one from an obsolete evaluation.
Of the red colours that are permitted here, ponceau 4R (E 124) is one of the “Southampton Six” and carries the mandatory warning that it “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children”. That warning is the practical thing to look for on a UK label, not this number.