E163c - Malvidin
What it is and how it is used
Malvidin is one of the six anthocyanidins found in plants, and the one that gives red grapes, blueberries and red wine their blue-purple cast. It is a real and well-characterised compound — but it is not, on its own, a numbered food additive in Great Britain.
The GB authorised colour is E 163 anthocyanins, a single entry covering the mixture obtained by macerating or extracting edible fruit and vegetables. The assimilated specification for E 163 lists malvidin among its constituents, alongside cyanidin, peonidin, delphinidin, pelargonidin and petunidin. There are no separate E 163a to E 163f numbers in the Great Britain list; those suffixes come from international product databases.
Foods commonly containing it
As part of E 163 anthocyanins: soft drinks and fruit drinks, yoghurts and dairy desserts, jams and confectionery, and ice cream. Malvidin also occurs naturally, unadded, in red grapes, blueberries, bilberries and red wine.
Safety summary
There is no separate GB authorisation for E 163c. The FSA Register of Food Additive Authorisations lists E 163 anthocyanins as authorised, in Group II — food colours authorised at quantum satis, and the assimilated specifications regulation contains one entry, “E 163 ANTHOCYANINS”, in which malvidin appears as a named constituent rather than as a standalone additive.
In practice that means a UK ingredients list will read “anthocyanins” or “E163”, never “E163c”. We have not stated an ADI for this code, because it is not a substance for which one has been set independently of the E 163 group.