Polysorbate 60
Polysorbate 60 is one member of the polysorbate emulsifier family, which regulators often assess together because the substances share similar structures and metabolic fate. In the United States it is permitted only for listed uses and maximum levels, including certain toppings, cakes and mixes, icings, confectionery coatings, dressings, shortenings/oils, dough-conditioned bakery products, beverage-mix foams, color dispersions, and frozen desserts. JECFA set a group ADI of 0–25 mg/kg body weight per day, while Japan’s Food Safety Commission set a lower group ADI of 10 mg/kg/day after treating high-dose diarrhea in rats as adverse. EFSA’s 2015 review reported low acute toxicity and no concern for genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, or developmental toxicity, but its toddler exposure estimate was very close to the group ADI under one refined scenario. The main modern uncertainty is gut biology: mouse and mechanistic studies with polysorbate 80 and related emulsifiers show microbiome, mucus-barrier, inflammation, and metabolic signals, but direct evidence that polysorbate 60 causes harm at ordinary food levels remains limited.
- Concern
- Limited
- Function
- Emulsifiers
- Updated
- May 25, 2026
What this is
Polysorbate 60 is one member of the polysorbate emulsifier family, which regulators often assess together because the substances share similar structures and metabolic fate. In the United States it is permitted only for listed uses and maximum levels, including certain toppings, cakes and mixes, icings, confectionery coatings, dressings, shortenings/oils, dough-conditioned bakery products, beverage-mix foams, color dispersions, and frozen desserts. JECFA set a group ADI of 0–25 mg/kg body weight per day, while Japan’s Food Safety Commission set a lower group ADI of 10 mg/kg/day after treating high-dose diarrhea in rats as adverse. EFSA’s 2015 review reported low acute toxicity and no concern for genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, or developmental toxicity, but its toddler exposure estimate was very close to the group ADI under one refined scenario. The main modern uncertainty is gut biology: mouse and mechanistic studies with polysorbate 80 and related emulsifiers show microbiome, mucus-barrier, inflammation, and metabolic signals, but direct evidence that polysorbate 60 causes harm at ordinary food levels remains limited.
Safety Review
The critical endpoints experts review in safety assessments. This is not a prediction of harm.
Regulatory reviews treat polysorbate 60 with closely related polysorbates because they have similar structure and metabolism; these reviews found very low acute toxicity and no clear genotoxic, carcinogenic, or developmental-toxicity concern. The clearest traditional animal finding for polysorbate 60 is gastrointestinal irritation and diarrhea at high dietary levels, which drove conservative daily-intake limits in some reviews. More recent gut-health work raises a separate uncertainty: polysorbate 80 and some emulsifiers changed mucus-bacteria interactions and inflammation markers in mice, while older in vitro work and reviews note possible effects on bacterial translocation; direct human evidence for polysorbate 60 at ordinary food exposure is still limited. Overall, the concern is not proven human harm but a modest gut-barrier and microbiome data gap for frequent exposure to this class of emulsifiers.
No safety review endpoints are listed for this ingredient yet.
Restaurant Usage
4 linked ingredient reports
State Policies
0 linked policies
No current state policy is listed for this ingredient in the policy tracker.
Federal Policies
0 linked policies
No direct federal policy is linked to this ingredient right now.
Sources
0 visible sources
Source population is still pending for this dossier. The page stays visible because the restaurant and policy context is still useful.