Acid-treated starch

INS 1401CAS 65996-63-6

Listed as an emulsifier, a thickener and a stabiliser by Codex.

Listed as emulsifiers (Codex) · thickeners (Codex) · stabilisers (Codex)

Acid-treated starch gives a fluid paste when hot that sets to a firm gel on cooling, which suits it to gum confectionery and jelly sweets.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Acid-treated starch by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
JurisdictionStatusScope and limitsCitation
Australia and New ZealandFood Standards Australia New ZealandPermitted, with conditions

54 food categories

no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice)

Show every food category
  • 0 Preparations of food additives — GMP
  • 1.1.1 Liquid milk (including buttermilk) — GMPOnly UHT goats milk.
  • 1.1.2 Liquid milk products and flavoured liquid milk — GMP
  • 1.2.2 Fermented milk products and rennetted milk products — GMP
  • 1.3 Condensed milk and evaporated milk — GMP
  • 1.4.1 Cream, reduced cream and light cream — GMPOnly UHT creams and creams receiving equivalent or greater heat treatments.
  • 1.4.2 Cream products (flavoured, whipped, thickened, sour cream etc) — GMP
  • 1.5 Dried milk, milk powder, cream powder — GMP
  • 1.6 Cheese and cheese products — GMP
  • 10.2 Liquid egg products — GMP
  • 10.3 Frozen egg products — GMP
  • 10.4 Dried or heat coagulated egg products — GMP
  • 11.1.1 Rainbow sugar — GMP
  • 11.3.1 Dried honey — GMP
  • 11.4 Tabletop sweeteners — GMP
  • 12.1.2 Reduced sodium salt mixture — GMP
  • 12.1.3 Salt substitute — GMP
  • 12.5 Yeast and yeast products — GMP
  • 12.6 Vegetable protein products — GMP
  • 13.3 Formulated meal replacements and formulated supplementary foods — GMP
  • 13.4 Formulated supplementary sports foods — GMP
  • 13.5 Food for special medical purposes — GMP
  • 14.1.1.2 Carbonated, mineralised and soda waters — GMP
  • 14.1.2.1 Fruit and vegetable juices — GMPFor juice separated by other than mechanical means only.
  • 14.1.2.2 Fruit and vegetable juice products — GMP
  • 14.1.3 Water based flavoured drinks — GMP
  • 14.1.4 Formulated Beverages — GMP
  • 14.1.5 Coffee, coffee substitutes, tea, herbal infusions and similar products — GMP
  • 14.2.3 Wine based drinks and reduced alcohol wines — GMP
  • 14.2.4.1 Fruit wine products and vegetable wine products — GMP
  • 14.2.5 Spirits and liqueurs — GMP
  • 14.3 Alcoholic beverages not included in item 14.2 — GMP
  • 2.1 Edible oils essentially free of water — GMP
  • 2.2.1.2 Butter products — GMP
  • 2.2.1.3 Margarine and similar products — GMP
  • 2.2.2 Oil emulsions (<80% oil) — GMP
  • 20 Foods not included in items 0 to 14 — GMP
  • 3 Ice cream and edible ices — GMP
  • 4.1.3 Fruits and vegetables that are peeled, cut, or both peeled and cut — GMP
  • 4.3 Processed fruits and vegetables — GMP
  • 5.1 Chocolate and cocoa products — GMP
  • 5.2 Sugar confectionery — GMP
  • 5.4 Icings and frostings — GMP
  • 6.3 Processed cereal and meal products — GMP
  • 6.4 Flour products (including noodles and pasta) — GMP
  • 7 Breads and bakery products — GMP
  • 8.2 Processed meat, poultry and game products in whole cuts or pieces — GMP
  • 8.3 Processed comminuted meat, poultry and game products, other than products listed in item 8.3.2 — GMP
  • 8.3.2 Sausage and sausage meat containing raw, unprocessed meat — GMP
  • 8.4 Edible casings — GMP
  • 8.5 Animal protein products — GMP
  • 9.2 Processed fish and fish products — GMP
  • 9.3 Semi preserved fish and fish products — GMP
  • 9.4 Fully preserved fish including canned fish products — GMP
Food Standards Code, Schedule 15, S15—5and 53 further provisionsretrieved 2026-10-17
CanadaHealth CanadaNo listing matchedHealth Canada’s lists name additives without E or INS numbers, so this site matches them by exact name. A substance listed there under a name this site does not recognise has no row here.
European UnionEuropean Commission / EFSANo listed food uses foundThis site has not matched this substance to any food use on this jurisdiction’s list of authorised food additives. A food additive may be used only in foods that list names. Flavourings, enzymes, processing aids and added nutrients are regulated separately and do not appear on it.
Great BritainFood Standards Agency / Food Standards ScotlandNo listed food uses foundThis site has not matched this substance to any food use on this jurisdiction’s list of authorised food additives. A food additive may be used only in foods that list names. Flavourings, enzymes, processing aids and added nutrients are regulated separately and do not appear on it.
JapanConsumer Affairs AgencyNo listing matchedThis site imports only Japan’s list of designated additives (Appended Table 1 to the Regulations for Enforcement of the Food Sanitation Act), matched by English name. Existing additives, natural flavouring agents and ordinary foods used as additives are permitted outside that list and are not imported, so an empty row does not show that Japan does not permit the substance.
South KoreaMinistry of Food and Drug SafetyNo listing matchedThis site imports Part III of South Korea’s Standards and Specifications for Food Additives, matched by CAS number, then INS number, then exact name. Mixed preparations and sanitisers are not imported, and an entry whose identifiers disagreed with a page’s is held for review, so an empty row does not show that South Korea does not permit the substance.
United StatesFood and Drug AdministrationNot listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited.
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

7 food categories

no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice)

Show every food category and its notes
  • 01.2.1.1 Fermented milks (plain), not heat-treated after fermentation — GMP
    • Note 234 For use as a stabilizer or thickener only.
    • Note 235 For use in reconstituted and recombined products conforming to the Standard for Fermented Milks (CXS 243-2003) only.
  • 01.2.1.2 Fermented milks (plain), heat-treated after fermentation — GMP
    • Note 234 For use as a stabilizer or thickener only.
  • 01.2.2 Renneted milk (plain) — GMP
  • 01.4.2 Sterilized and UHT creams, whipping and whipped creams, and reduced fat creams (plain) — GMP
    • Note XS288 Excluding products conforming to the Standard for Cream and Prepared Creams (CXS 288-1976)
  • 09.2.2 Frozen battered fish, fish fillets and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — GMP
    • Note 63 For non-standardized food and for breaded or batter coatings in food conforming to the Standard for Quick Frozen Fish Sticks (Fish Fingers), Fish Portions and Fish Fillets - Breaded or in Batter (CODEX STAN 166-1989).
  • 11.4 Other sugars and syrups (e.g. xylose, maple syrup, sugar toppings) — GMP
    • Note 258 Excluding maple syrup.
  • 14.1.5 Coffee, coffee substitutes, tea, herbal infusions, and other hot cereal and grain beverages, excluding cocoa — GMP
    • Note 160 For use in ready-to-drink products and pre-mixes for ready-to-drink products only.
CXS 192-1995 Table Three, INS 1401and 7 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

How much is permitted

A listing usually limits the quantity as well as the food. Only one of the forms that takes is a figure: quantum satis and good manufacturing practice permit the amount the technological effect requires and no more, which is a limit rather than the absence of one. Figures below are the range across every food category this page is listed in, and categories differ between regulators — see how much is permitted.

Australia and New Zealand—54 GMP
Codex Alimentarius—8 GMP

No regulator sets a figure for Acid-treated starch. That is not an absence of control: where the listing says quantum satis or good manufacturing practice, the quantity is limited to what the effect requires.

What it is made from

Made by treating starch with acid below its gelatinisation temperature, which shortens the chains without dissolving the granule.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian

Compare other additives on the dietary indexes.

Allergen labelling

  • May be from cereals containing gluten. Modified starch may be made from wheat as well as maize, potato, tapioca or rice. Annex II's wheat exceptions do not include modified starches.

The EU’s list of allergens an ingredients list must emphasise is Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex II (consolidated text of 1 April 2025). Whether a product must declare one depends on what its additive was actually made from, which the label may not show; see the allergen origin index.

CAS registry number
65996-63-6

Every name it appears under

2 recorded names. A label may use any of them.

INS number

  • 1401

Other names

  • ACID-TREATED STARCH

Hazard reference values

Values set by assessing bodies. A body that has not set a value is not listed here.
TypeValuePopulationAssessed byOpinion
ADInot specified—JECFA2016

Evidence and how bodies read it

Studies, and the differing conclusions regulators drew from them, are curated rather than machine-read, and none has been written for this substance yet.

Common questions

Assembled from what is above, in the words the questions are usually asked in. Each answer is the same statement the relevant section makes, with the same citations behind it.

What is INS 1401?
INS 1401 is Acid-treated starch. Acid-treated starch gives a fluid paste when hot that sets to a firm gel on cooling, which suits it to gum confectionery and jelly sweets.
What is Acid-treated starch used for in food?
It is listed as an emulsifier, a thickener and a stabiliser — the role Codex assigns it. This page shows every function each regulator records, with the citation for each.
Where is Acid-treated starch permitted?
Of the seven regulators this site reads, Australia and New Zealand and the Codex standard permit it. Each permission is for named foods at named levels, not a blanket one; the table on this page gives them with citations.
Is Acid-treated starch vegan?
Yes. Acid-treated starch is not derived from animals, and is suitable for vegetarians. This page says what it is made from and how.

Sources for this page

  • anz retrieved 2026-10-17
  • gsfa retrieved 2026-09-07

Full licence terms and publisher details on Sources. How this page is built and updated: Method.

Machine-readable: a JSON record of this additive is given on request —how to ask for access.

Follow changes to Acid-treated starch:Atom feed — regulatory events, and any change the weekly refresh detects in its provisions.