Aluminium silicate (Kaolin)

E number E559CAS 1332-58-7

Kaolin is a white clay used as an anticaking agent. It is the same clay used to make porcelain.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Aluminium silicate (Kaolin) 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 SafetyPermitted, 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), 백도토 (“Kaolin”, the English the Code prints beside it). Main use (주용도) of 백도토: 여과보조제. Standard for use (사용기준) of 백도토: (1) [may be used only for the purpose or in the food the sentence states; and a further sentence this site does not describe] “백도토는 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 불용성광물성물질과 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 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 / JECFANot 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.

Australia and New Zealand—54 GMP
South Korea—1 no quantity stated

No regulator sets a figure for Aluminium silicate (Kaolin). 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

Mined as kaolinite clay, then washed, purified and milled.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian

Compare other additives on the dietary indexes.

CAS registry number
1332-58-7

How the EU defines it

The legal specification an additive must meet to be sold as this E number in the EU — what it is, how it may be made, and the purity it must reach. From Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012.

A specification does not authorise use. This site holds no EU permission for Aluminium silicate (Kaolin) in food; see the EU row in the status panel above.

E 559 Aluminium silicate (kaolin)

Aluminium silicate hydrous (kaolin) is a purified white plastic clay composed of kaolinite, potassium aluminium silicate, feldspar and quartz. Processing should not include calcination. The raw kaolinitic clay used in the production of aluminium silicate shall have a level of dioxin which does not make it injurious to health or unfit for human consumption. The product should be free of asbestos

Synonyms: Kaolin, light or heavy

Assay, identification and purity criteria

Description and assay

Einecs
215-286-4 (kaolinite)
Chemical formula
Al₂Si₂O₅(OH)₄ (kaolinite)
Molecular weight
264
Assay
Content not less than 90 % (sum of silica and alumina, after ignition)
Silica (SiO₂)
Between 45 % and 55 %
Alumina (Al₂O₃)
Between 30 % and 39 %
Description
Fine, white or greyish white, unctuous powder. Kaolin is made up of loose aggregations of randomly oriented stacks of kaolinite flakes or of individual hexagonal flakes
Note (3)
Period of application: until 31 January 2014.

Identification

Test for alumina
Passes test
Test for silicate
Passes test
X-ray diffraction
Characteristic peaks at 7,18/3,58/2,38/1,78 Å
Infrared absorption spectrum
Peaks at 3 700 and 3 620 cm⁻¹

Purity criteria

Loss on ignition
Between 10 and 14 % (1 000 °C, constant weight)
Water soluble matter
Not more than 0,3 %
Acid soluble matter
Not more than 2 %
Iron
Not more than 5 %
Potassium oxide (K₂O)
Not more than 5 %
Carbon
Not more than 0,5 %
Arsenic
Not more than 3 mg/kg
Lead
Not more than 5 mg/kg
Mercury
Not more than 1 mg/kg

Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012, Annex, E 559

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E559

CAS registry number

  • 12141-46-7
  • 1332-58-7

As it appears in regulation

  • Aluminium silicate
  • Aluminium silicate (Kaolin)
  • Kaolin

Other names

  • Aluminium silicate
  • Aluminium silicate (Kaolin)
  • E 559

Systematic names

  • dialuminum;oxygen(2-);silicon(4+)
  • oxo-oxoalumanyloxy-[oxo(oxoalumanyloxy)silyl]oxysilane;dihydrate

Hazard reference values

Values set by assessing bodies. A body that has not set a value is not listed here.
TypeValuePopulationAssessed byOpinion
ADInot specified—JECFA1985

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 E 559?
E 559 is Aluminium silicate (Kaolin). Kaolin is a white clay used as an anticaking agent. It is the same clay used to make porcelain.
Where is Aluminium silicate (Kaolin) permitted?
Of the seven regulators this site reads, Australia and New Zealand and South Korea 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 Aluminium silicate (Kaolin) vegan?
Yes. Aluminium silicate (Kaolin) 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
  • kr retrieved 2026-10-18
  • euspecs retrieved 2026-10-18

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.

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