Activated carbon
Activated carbon · Activated charcoal · Decolourizing carbonCAS 7440-44-0
Listed as a processing aid by the US.
Listed as processing aids (US)
- United States: Processing aid — FDA, Substances Added to Food: ACTIVATED CARBON
Activated carbon is a porous black powder used to decolourise and purify — to strip colour from sugar syrups and oils, and to adsorb unwanted flavours. It works by surface area rather than by reacting, and it is filtered out again.
Where it is and isn’t permitted
| Jurisdiction | Status | Scope and limits | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia and New Zealand | No 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. | ||
| Canada | No 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 Union | No 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 Britain | No 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. | ||
| Japan | No 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 Korea | Permitted, with conditions | Designated food additive: Standards and Specifications for Food Additives, Part III, 2. …Designated food additive: Standards and Specifications for Food Additives, Part III, 2. 가공보조제 (processing aids), 활성탄 (“Active Carbon”, the English the Code prints beside it). Main use (주용도) of 활성탄: 여과보조제. Standard for use (사용기준) of 활성탄: (1) [may be used only for the purpose or in the food the sentence states; and a further sentence this site does not describe] “활성탄은 식품의 제조 또는 가공상 여과보조제(여과, 탈색, 탈취, 정제 등) 목적에 한하여 사용하여야 한다. 다만, 사용 시 최종식품 완성 전에 제거하여야 하며, 식품 중의 잔류량은 0.5%(규조토, 백도토, 벤토나이트, 산성백토, 탤크, 퍼라이트, 활성탄 등 다른 불용성 광물성 물질과 병용할 때에는 전 잔류량의 합계가 0.5%)이하이어야 한다.” The Korean is the standard as published. There is no official English translation of the current Code (the English version on MFDS’s website is the 2020 edition and has no legal effect); the English in square brackets is this site’s description of what each sentence does, not a translation of the foods or the levels. Compositional specifications (Part IV) are not imported, nor are the general standards in Part II, which apply to every additive. | Standards and Specifications for Food Additives (식품첨가물의 기준 및 규격), MFDS Notification, Part III (Standards for use, by item)retrieved 2026-10-18 |
| United States | Not listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited. | ||
| Codex Alimentarius | Not listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited. |
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.
| South Korea | — | 1 no quantity stated |
|---|
No regulator sets a figure for Activated carbon. 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 FDA’s inventory records
This page holds no listing for Activated carbon in the parts of 21 CFR this site reads. FDA’s Substances Added to Food inventory does carry it, as ACTIVATED CARBON, pointing at a food-contact regulation, not a listing for use in food: 21 CFR 177.1210.
Technical effects FDA records: processing aid.
The inventory is an information resource: a row means FDA holds information about the substance’s use in food, not that the substance is listed for that use. It is shown apart from the permissions above and is not counted as a US permission anywhere on this site.
What it is made from
Made by carbonising organic matter — sawdust, peat, lignite, coal, cellulose residues, coconut shells, petroleum coke — and activating it at high temperature in steam or carbon dioxide, sometimes with added inorganic salts.
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
Compare other additives on the dietary indexes.
- CAS registry number
- 7440-44-0
How JECFA defines it
The international specification for identity and purity, prepared by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and published by FAO. It is a different document from any above, written by a different body and revised on its own cycle; it is advisory, and a country adopts it or does not.
Activated Carbon
A solid, porous, carbonaceous material prepared by carbonizing and activating organic substances. The raw materials, which include sawdust, peat, lignite, coal, cellulose residues, coconut shells, petroleum coke, etc., may be carbonized and activated at high temperature with or without the addition of inorganic salts in a stream of activating gases such as steam or carbon dioxide. Alternatively, carbonaceous matter may be treated with a chemical activating agent such as phosphoric acid or zinc chloride and the mixture carbonized at an elevated temperature, followed by removal of the chemical activating agent by water washing.
Synonyms: Activated charcoal, decolourizing carbon Activated charcoal; Decolourizing carbon
Assay, identification and purity criteria
Description and assay
- Specification history
- Prepared at the 73 rd JECFA (2010) and published in FAO JECFA Monographs 10 (2010), superseding specifications prepared at the 37 th JECFA (1990) and published in the Combined Compendium of Food Additive Specifications, FAO JECFA Monographs 1 (2005). No ADI was established at the 31 st JECFA (1987).
- Chemical names
- Carbon
- C.A.S. number
- 7440-44-0
- Chemical formula
- C
- Formula weight
- 12.01
- DESCRIPTION
- Powder or granules, black, odourless
- FUNCTIONAL USES
- Adsorbent, decolourizing agent
Identification
- Solubility
- Insoluble in water and organic solvents
- Adsorption
- Place about 3 g of powdered sample in a glass-stoppered flask containing 10 ml of dilute hydrochloric acid (5%), boil for 30 s, and cool to room temperature. Add 100 ml of iodine TS, stopper, and shake vigorously for 30 sec. Filter through filter paper (Whatman No. 2 or equivalent), discarding the first portion of filtrate. Compare 50 ml of the filtrate with a reference solution prepared by diluting 10 ml of iodine to 50 ml with water, but not treated with carbon. The colour of the carbon treated iodine solution shall be lighter in colour than that of the reference solution, indicating the adsorptivity of the sample.
Purity criteria
- Adsorption power
- Not less than 90% and not more than 110% of the value stated on label. See description under TESTS
- Loss on drying (Vol. 4)
- Not more than 15% (120º, 4 h) (See Volume 4 under “GENERAL METHODS, Inorganic Components.”)
- Sulfide compounds
- To 1.0 g of the sample in a conical flask add 5 ml of 1 N hydrochloric acid and 20 ml of water. Heat to boiling. The fumes released do not turn lead acetate paper brown. (Lead acetate paper is prepared by saturating filter paper with lead acetate TS and drying the paper at 100º).
- Acid soluble substances
- Not more than 3% To about 1 g of the sample, accurately weighed, add 25 ml of dilute nitric acid TS and boil for 5 min. Filter whilst hot through a sintered-glass filter (10) and wash with 10 ml of hot water. Evaporate the combined filtrate and washings to dryness on a water bath, add to the residue 1 ml of hydrochloric acid, evaporate to dryness again and dry the residue to constant weight at 103±2º.
- Sulfated ash
- Not more than 5% Heat a silica or platinum crucible to redness for 30 min, allow to cool in a desiccator and weigh. Accurately weigh about 1 g of sample in the crucible and add 2 ml of sulfuric acid TS. Heat at first on a water bath, then cautiously over a flame, then progressively to about 600 o . Continue the incineration until all black particles have disappeared and allow the crucible to cool. Add a few drops of dilute sulfuric acid TS, heat and incinerate as before and allow to cool. Evaporate and incinerate carefully, allow to cool, weigh, and repeat the ignition for 15 min to constant weight.
- Water extractable substances
- Not more than 4% Transfer about 5 g of sample, accurately weighed, into a 250 ml flask provided with a reflux condenser and a Bunsen valve. Add 100 ml of water and several glass beads, and reflux for 1 h. Cool slightly, and filter through Whatman No 2 or equivalent filter paper, discarding the first 10 ml of filtrate. Cool the filtrate to room temperature, and pipet 25.0 ml into a tared dish. Evaporate the filtrate in the dish to incipient dryness on a hot plate never allowing the solution to boil. Dry for 1 h at 103±2º in a vacuum oven, cool and weigh. Calculate the percentage of water extractables in the filtrate, based on the sample weight and volume of sample taken for gravimetric measurement.
- Alcohol soluble substances
- Not more than 0.5% To 2.0 g of sample add 50 ml of ethanol (96 per cent) and boil under a reflux condenser for 10 min. Filter immediately, wash residue with 10 ml of warm ethanol and filter. Quantitatively transfer the combined filtrate into a tared beaker containing a few antibumping stones. Evaporate to dryness on a water bath and dry to a constant mass at 103±2º. The residue on evaporation weighs not more than 10 mg.
- Alkali soluble coloured substances
- To 0.25 g of sample add 10 ml of 2 N sodium hydroxide and boil for 1 min. Cool, filter and dilute the filtrate to 10 ml with water. Prepare a reference solution by mixing 1.90 ml of solution A (1% hydrochloric acid) and 0.10 ml of a solution B (9.6 ml of ferric chloride TS + 0.2 ml of cobaltous chloride TS + 0.2 ml of cupric sulfate TS). The colour of sample solution shall not be more intense than that of the reference solution.
- Cyanogen compounds
- Mix 5 g of sample with 50 ml of water and 2 g of tartaric acid. Distil the mixture, collecting 25 ml of distillate below the surface of a mixture of 2 ml of sodium hydroxide TS and 10 ml of water contained in a small flask placed in an ice bath. Dilute the distillate to 50 ml with water, and mix. Add 12 drops of ferrous sulfate TS to 25 ml of the diluted distillate, heat almost to boiling, cool, and add 1 ml of hydrochloric acid. No blue colour is produced.
- Higher aromatic hydrocarbons
- Extract 5 g of the sample with about 45 ml of cyclohexane in a continuous extraction apparatus for 2 h. Collect the extract and dilute to 50 ml with cyclohexane. Examine under ultraviolet light at 365 nm. The colour or fluorescence of the solution is not more intense than that of a 83 ng/ml solution of quinine prepared in 0.01N sulfuric acid, examined under the same conditions.
- Arsenic (Vol. 4)
- Not more than 3 mg/kg Accurately weigh about 4 g of the sample into a conical flask, add 80 ml of 2 N hydrochloric acid, extra pure, and boil gently under reflux for 1 h, filter and wash the filter with 2 N hydrochloric acid. Cool and quantitatively transfer the filtrate into 100 ml volumetric flask and make up to volume with the same acid. Determine arsenic using atomic absorption hydride generation technique.
- Lead (Vol. 4)
- Not more than 5 mg/kg Determine using an AAS/ICP-AES technique appropriate to the specified level using the solution prepared under arsenic.
- Zinc (Vol.4)
- Not more than 25 mg/kg Determine using an AAS/ICP-AES technique appropriate to the specified level using the solution prepared under arsenic.
- Test: Adsorption power
- To about 0.3 g of dried sample, accurately weighed, in a 100 ml ground-glass-stoppered conical flask, add 25.0 ml of a freshly prepared solution of 0.5 g of phenazone in 50 ml of water. Shake thoroughly for 15 min. Filter and reject the first 5 ml of filtrate. Pipette 10.0 ml of the filtrate into a conical flask, add 1.0 g of potassium bromide and 20 ml of dilute hydrochloric acid TS. Using 0.1 ml of ethoxychrysoidine solution as indicator, titrate with 0.1 N potassium bromate until the colour changes from reddish-pink to yellowish-pink. Titrate slowly (1 drop every 15 sec) towards the end of the titration. Carry out a blank titration using 10.0 ml of the phenazone solution. Calculate adsorption power from: [235.3 (a - b)]/[d x m] where a is the volume (ml) of 0.1 N potassium bromate consumed by the blank; b is the volume (ml) of 0.1 N potassium bromate consumed by the test solution; m is the mass (g) of dried sample; and d is the value stated on the label.
Every name it appears under
3 recorded names. A label may use any of them.
Other names
- Activated carbon
- Activated charcoal
- Decolourizing carbon
Hazard reference values
No reference value for this substance in the sources we hold.
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 Activated carbon?
- Activated carbon is a porous black powder used to decolourise and purify — to strip colour from sugar syrups and oils, and to adsorb unwanted flavours. It works by surface area rather than by reacting, and it is filtered out again.
- What is Activated carbon used for in food?
- It is listed as a processing aid — the role the US assigns it. This page shows every function each regulator records, with the citation for each.
- Where is Activated carbon permitted?
- Of the seven regulators this site reads, South Korea permits it. Each permission is for named foods at named levels, not a blanket one; the table on this page gives them with citations.
- Is Activated carbon vegan?
- Yes. Activated carbon is not derived from animals, and is suitable for vegetarians. This page says what it is made from and how.
Sources for this page
- kr retrieved 2026-10-18
- jecfaspecs retrieved 2026-09-23
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