Overview
About Annatto
Annatto is the orange colouring extracted from achiote seeds, listed as E160b and used to turn cheddar orange and butter, margarine, custard, cereal and snack seasonings yellow.
It is graded high on salicylates and is one of the additives excluded on RPAH and failsafe elimination diets, and unlike most natural colours it has a real intolerance literature behind it. In the classic challenge study, 26 percent of chronic urticaria patients reacted to a dose equivalent to the annatto in 25 g of butter, a higher rate than tartrazine or sunset yellow produced in comparable challenges. That is why annatto keeps turning up in journals belonging to people who thought they had already cut out food colourings.
Sensitivities
How Annatto scores
Watch for
What trips people up
- Graded high on the salicylate axis and excluded on RPAH and failsafe elimination diets. Note that 160a, the beta-carotene colour, is generally allowed on those diets while 160b, annatto, is not, so the number on the label matters.
- The natural colour trap. Products marketed as containing no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives frequently use annatto to get their colour, so an artificial-dye-free label is not an annatto-free label.
- Reactions in the challenge literature came on around four hours after the dose, which is late enough that most people blame the next meal instead. If you are testing annatto, give the day a wide window in your log.
- Where it hides: orange cheddar and Red Leicester, processed cheese slices, butter and margarine, custard and ice cream, breakfast cereals, crackers and crisp seasonings, smoked fish, and some rice and stew dishes coloured with achiote.
- Rare IgE-mediated reactions to annatto, including anaphylaxis, have been described in case reports, which is a different mechanism from the delayed urticaria seen in the challenge studies.
- Nickel and the anti-inflammatory rating are both graded borderline, minor next to the salicylate and additive story.
Diet fit
Where it fits
Swap ideas
More alternatives
FAQ
Common questions about Annatto
Can annatto cause hives?
It has a stronger case than most food colourings. In a study of consecutive patients with chronic urticaria or angioedema, 56 were challenged with annatto during an elimination diet at a dose equivalent to the amount in 25 g of butter, and 26 percent reacted roughly four hours later. For comparison, the same line of research recorded 11 percent for tartrazine and 17 percent for sunset yellow. That does not mean everyone with hives reacts to annatto, but it does make it worth an explicit trial rather than an afterthought.
Is annatto a salicylate?
It is graded high on the salicylate axis here and it is one of the colours removed on the RPAH and failsafe elimination diets, so anyone doing a strict salicylate or additive elimination is expected to cut it. If you are reintroducing foods in order, treat annatto as an additive challenge in its own right rather than assuming it comes back in with the food it colours.
What foods contain annatto?
Orange cheeses are the big one: cheddar, Red Leicester, Cheshire and processed cheese slices are coloured with it, and so are a lot of butters and margarines. Beyond dairy, look at custard, ice cream, breakfast cereals, crackers, savoury snack coatings, smoked fish, and Latin American and Caribbean dishes built on achiote paste or achiote oil. The white or uncoloured versions of the same cheeses are the simplest way to test it.
Is annatto safer than artificial colouring because it is natural?
The challenge data says no. The 1978 work that put annatto on the map was designed to test exactly that assumption and found a natural colour provoking hypersensitivity reactions at least as often as the synthetic dyes it was compared against. Plant origin tells you where a molecule came from, not how your immune system or your gut will handle it.
References
Read the background
Ratings reflect the Triggerbites ingredient database and may vary with portion size and preparation.