E101 - A Food Supplement That Is Actually A Vitamin

Author: Nia Rouseberg Time for reading: ~2 minutes Last Updated: January 27, 2026

In this article, learn more about E101 - A Food Supplement That Is Actually A Vitamin. E101 on the label means that the food is fortified with an important vitamin.

The fact is that many of the food additives , which are marked with the letter E and a few digits after it, are potentially dangerous to health and some of them are not approved for use in the European Union. However, it is also a fact that among the E's that we find on food labels, there are some that are not only safe but also useful in certain doses. It is in this group that E101 falls .

E101 is actually the code for vitamin B2 - riboflavin , which it is used in the food industry.

All additives, denoted by E and the first digit 1, are dyes used for coloring or improving the color of foodstuffs. E101 gives a characteristic yellow color to the foods in which it is included. It is due to the specific yellow color after oxidation of riboflavin. It is in its oxidized form that riboflavin is used as a dye in the food industry.

It is important to note that compared to other B-complex vitamins , riboflavin is very poorly soluble in water. This makes it impossible to use it to color liquid foods and beverages. Thus, yellow liquid products do not owe their pleasant coloring to E101, but to other colorants, some of which may be toxic in high amounts, such as E102 (tartrazine) . However, riboflavin can be used very successfully for coloring solid and powdered foods, which is why many of the yellow ones have E101 marked on the label with their content.

Of course, many foods are naturally rich in riboflavin without it being added to them during industrial processing. Such are the products containing milk , eggs , mushrooms , almonds and others.

In healthy people, much of the riboflavin, whether taken as a dietary supplement or as a natural ingredient, is rapidly excreted from the body. The reason for this is its poor solubility in water and the inability to accumulate in the body. This makes riboflavin deficiency a common problem, especially when it is deficient in our daily diet.

There are no data on the toxic effects of overeating foods naturally rich in riboflavin or those to which it is additionally added in the form of E101. It has been proven that when high doses of E101 enter the body, the excess is excreted in the urine , giving it a characteristic yellow color. It has also been shown that with regular intake of the required daily doses, riboflavin supports cellular respiration and can help prevent various chronic diseases, including migraines.

E101 is one of the safest food supplements and should not be a concern for consumers.

E101 - A Food Supplement That Is Actually A Vitamin

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