An FL number identifies a flavouring substance in the European Union the way a FEMA number identifies one in the United States. It looks like 05.018, and the regulation that carries it calls it, in its own words, "the unique identification number of the substance".
The numbers live in the Union list of flavouring substances, Annex I Part A to Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008. That list currently holds 2,475 substances. If a flavouring substance is not on it, it may not be used as a flavouring substance in EU food.
Where the name comes from
FLAVIS is the Flavouring Information System, the database built to run the EU evaluation programme created by Regulation (EC) No 2232/96. The register of substances came first, and Regulation (EC) No 1565/2000, which set out how the evaluation would work, sends submissions to the coordinating institute by name: the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, Institute of Food Safety and Toxicology, Flavis.
That history matters for one practical reason. People still say FLAVIS number, and the current legal instrument does not use the word at all. Regulation 1334/2008 says FL No., and the list it governs is the Union list. The number is the same; only the vocabulary moved.
Reading an FL number
The digits before the point sort the list into seventeen structural families. Esters are by far the largest.
| Prefix | What it holds | Entries |
|---|---|---|
| 09 | Esters | 789 |
| 12 | Sulfur compounds | 225 |
| 02 | Alcohols | 206 |
| 07 | Ketones | 195 |
| 05 | Aldehydes | 172 |
| 13 | Furans | 142 |
| 14 | Nitrogen heterocycles | 124 |
| 06 | Acetals | 114 |
| 08 | Acids | 111 |
The remaining eight families cover hydrocarbons, ethers, phenols, lactones, amines, sulfur heterocycles, amino acids and a miscellaneous group. Counts are taken from the list itself rather than from any published summary of it.
The columns, and the two defaults hiding in them
Annex I Part A carries nine columns, and two of them set a rule that applies even when the cell is empty.
Purity defaults to 95%. Column 6 is headed "Purity of the named substance at least 95% unless otherwise specified". Only 209 of the 2,475 entries specify something else, so for the other 2,266 the 95% floor applies without the table saying so anywhere on their row.
Use defaults to good manufacturing practice. Column 7 states that a flavouring substance is permitted in accordance with good manufacturing practices unless a specific restriction appears. Twenty-five entries carry one, and for those the regulation is strict: a substance with restrictions "may only be added to the listed food categories and under the specified conditions of use".
The other columns are identifiers, and the list is generous with them. 1,827 entries carry a JECFA number and 1,653 carry a Council of Europe number, which makes the Union list one of the better places to cross-reference a substance across systems.
The restriction numbers point at a different regulation
This is where readers get stuck. A restriction reads like this one, on quinine hydrochloride at FL 14.011:
In categories 14.1 and 14.2 – not more than 100 mg/kg
Categories 14.1 and 14.2 are not defined in Regulation 1334/2008. They come from Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, the food additives regulation, which is a different instrument entirely. The flavourings regulation borrows its food category numbering and says so in one line that is easy to miss.
The categories that turn up most in flavouring restrictions:
| Category | Foods |
|---|---|
| 01.7 | Cheese and cheese products |
| 03 | Edible ices |
| 05.3 | Chewing gum |
| 12 | Salts, spices, soups, sauces, salads and protein products |
| 14.1 | Non-alcoholic beverages |
| 14.2 | Alcoholic beverages |
| 15 | Ready-to-eat savouries and snacks |
So the quinine restriction says: in non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, not more than 100 mg per kilogram.
The list is not stable, and the 2012 text will mislead you
Regulation (EU) No 872/2012 adopted the Union list, and a great deal has happened since. Seventeen amending acts have touched Annex I Part A, and 78 substances that were on the list in 2012 are not on it now.
Reading the 2012 original therefore produces confident wrong answers. Allyl 2-furoate was FL 13.004 when the list was adopted and has since been withdrawn. So have several other furan derivatives, styrene, catechol and delta-damascone. Always work from the consolidated text, which EUR-Lex publishes with a version date in its identifier.
What it means alongside a FEMA number
The two systems overlap heavily and neither contains the other. Of the 3,039 current FEMA GRAS substances, 1,786 map to a Union list entry. Going the other way, 687 Union list entries have no FEMA counterpart at all, which is to say the EU has authorised several hundred flavouring substances a US formulator working from the FEMA list alone has never seen.
Forty-eight substances sit in the uncomfortable middle: still current FEMA GRAS entries, and withdrawn from the Union list. A formula built on the FEMA list and shipped into the EU can contain a substance the EU has taken off its register, and nothing in the FEMA entry will say so.
The remaining gap is mostly definitional rather than regulatory. The Union list covers defined flavouring substances, so natural complex materials are handled as flavouring preparations under Parts B to F and never receive an FL number, and substances used as additives sit under Regulation 1333/2008 instead. Absence from the Union list is not the same as prohibition, and reading it that way is the most common mistake made with this data.
Checking a substance
Ingredient lookup
Check an ingredient
Search the corpus by name, CAS number, or Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA) number. Every result shows FEMA GRAS status, flavor category, and whether the ingredient is natural. No account needed.
Start typing to search the ingredient corpus.
Try vanillin, limonene, ethyl butyrate or benzaldehyde. Or open the full ingredient lookup.
Ambrose publishes a reference page for every current FEMA GRAS substance, each showing its Union list position alongside its US and JECFA status, and saying plainly when there is no entry either way. See vanillin at FL 05.018, benzaldehyde at FL 05.013 or quinine hydrochloride with its beverage limits. The companion pieces on 21 CFR 172.515 and 21 CFR 172.510 cover the two US lists, and what FEMA GRAS means covers the conclusion a FEMA number records.
Sources
- Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008, consolidated text including Annex I Part A, EUR-Lex
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 872/2012, adopting the Union list, EUR-Lex
- Commission Regulation (EC) No 1565/2000, measures for the evaluation programme, EUR-Lex
- Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 on food additives, whose Annex II supplies the food categories, EUR-Lex