An inspection bureau for the American shelf
You came home from Europe feeling better and suspected the food. Some of that instinct is right, some is hype, and the difference is written in the regulation. We read the fine print. No scores. No scares. Receipts, not opinions.
The Tool
We check it against 422 substances the EU bans or restricts (aliases, E-numbers, and CAS numbers included) and cite the regulation for every flag. Runs in your browser; nothing you paste leaves your device.
Check a labelNot authorized anywhere in the EU for this use. The strongest verdict we report, and we only report it with the regulation number attached.
Legal in the EU only under conditions: concentration caps, specific product types, or mandatory warning labels. The detail matters, so we print it.
Permitted on both sides of the Atlantic. Most ingredients are. When the answer is boring, we say so.
The rare reverse case, where the FDA acted and Brussels didn't. Yes, it happens; see Red Dye 3.
In the EU these dyes are legal but require the children's-activity warning label, which is why European cereals use fruit and plant concentrates instead.
Since 2022 the EU limits homosalate to face products at 7.34%; the FDA allows 15% body-wide. Octocrylene is permitted at 10% in both, with EU scientists watching its benzophenone breakdown product.
The dyes carry the EU warning-label rule; TBHQ (E319) is permitted in the EU only in specific categories at capped levels.
Every exhibit states what the label discloses and what the regulation says about it, nothing more. How we assign statuses.
No: the EU never banned Red Dye 3 outright; it restricts erythrosine (E127) to cocktail and candied cherries, while the US went further and banned it from food entirely in January 2025.
Banned in EUYes: titanium dioxide (E171) has been banned as a food additive in the EU since February 2022, while the FDA still permits it in US food at up to 1% by weight.
Banned in EUYes: potassium bromate has been banned in EU food since 1990, while the FDA still permits it in US bread and flour at up to 75 parts per million.
Banned in EUYes: TPO, the photoinitiator that makes most gel nail polish cure under UV lamps, has been banned in EU cosmetics since September 1, 2025 as a category 1B reproductive toxicant; it remains legal in US salons.
Restricted in EUNo: despite what most lists claim, Red Dye 40 is legal in the EU; products containing it must carry a warning that it "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children," which is why most European brands reformulated voluntarily.
Banned in EUYes: zinc pyrithione has been banned in EU cosmetics since March 2022 as a category 1B reproductive toxicant, while the FDA still allows it at up to 2% in US anti-dandruff shampoos.
European sunscreens have long used UV filters the FDA wouldn't approve, especially for UVA. The reason is regulatory, not chemical. A calm look at the 25-year filter gap and the June 2026 bemotrizinol approval that began to close it.
Americans routinely report eating bread in Europe with no trouble, then bloating at home. A calm, data-led look at fructans vs gluten, fermentation, additives, wheat variety, portions, and the part nobody wants to credit: the vacation itself.
A fact-checked guide to which American foods are actually banned in Europe, and which the viral listicles get wrong. Sorted into true, overstated, and false, with primary-source citations for each.
BHA and BHT keep American snacks shelf-stable for months. They're not banned in Europe; they're permitted as E320 and E321 under strict limits. A calibrated look at why BHA carries a cancer flag and BHT mostly doesn't.