Ascorbic acid

E number E300INS 300CAS 50-81-7

Used as an antioxidant — Codex also lists it as acidity regulator, flour, treatment agent, sequestrant.

Ascorbic acid is vitamin C, used in food both as a nutrient and as an antioxidant that stops fats going rancid and cut fruit browning. It also acts as a flour treatment agent in breadmaking.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Ascorbic acid by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
JurisdictionStatusScope and limitsCitation
United StatesFood and Drug AdministrationPermitted21 CFR 182.3013and 1 further provisionretrieved 2026-09-07
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

29 food categories

highest permitted level 500 mg/kg

Show every food category
  • 01.1.2 Other Fluid Milk (plain) — GMP
  • 01.5.1 Milk powder and cream powder (plain) — GMP
  • 02.1.3 Lard, tallow, fish oil, and other animal fats — GMP
  • 04.2.1.1 Untreated fresh vegetables, (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes (including soybeans), and aloe vera), seaweeds and nuts and seeds — 500 mg/kg
  • 04.2.2.1 Frozen vegetables (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes, and aloe vera), seaweeds and nuts and seeds — GMP
  • 04.2.2.7 Fermented vegetable (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes, and aloe vera) and seaweed products, excluding fermented soybean products of food categories 06.8.6, 06.8.7, 12.9.1, — GMP
  • 06.2.1 Flours — 300 mg/kg
  • 06.4.1 Fresh pastas and noodles and like products — 200 mg/kg
  • 06.4.2 Dried pastas and noodles and like products — GMP
  • 08.1.2 Fresh meat, poultry and game, comminuted — GMP
  • 09.1.2 Fresh molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — GMP
  • 09.2.1 Frozen fish, fish fillets, and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — GMP
  • 09.2.2 Frozen battered fish, fish fillets and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — GMP
  • 09.2.3 Frozen minced and creamed fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — GMP
  • 09.2.4 Cooked and/or fried fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — GMP
  • 09.2.5 Smoked, dried, fermented, and/or salted fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — GMP
  • 12.1.2 Salt substitutes — GMP
  • 13.1.2 Follow-up formulae — 50 mg/kg
  • 13.2 Complementary foods for infants and young children — 500 mg/kg
  • 14.1.2.1 Fruit juice — GMP
  • 14.1.2.2 Vegetable juice — GMP
  • 14.1.2.3 Concentrates for fruit juice — GMP
  • 14.1.2.4 Concentrates for vegetable juice — GMP
  • 14.1.3.1 Fruit nectar — GMP
  • 14.1.3.2 Vegetable nectar — GMP
  • 14.1.3.3 Concentrates for fruit nectar — GMP
  • 14.1.3.4 Concentrates for vegetable nectar — GMP
  • 14.1.5 Coffee, coffee substitutes, tea, herbal infusions, and other hot cereal and grain beverages, excluding cocoa — GMP
  • 14.2.3 Grape wines — GMP
CXS 192-1995 Table Three, INS 300and 29 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Made commercially from glucose, usually derived from maize, by a two-stage fermentation route that has largely replaced the older Reichstein process. It is a plant-and-fermentation product; no animal material is involved.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian
CAS registry number
50-81-7
InChIKey
CIWBSHSKHKDKBQ-JLAZNSOCSA-N
PubChem
CID 54670067

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E300

INS number

  • 300

CAS registry number

  • 50-81-7

As it appears in regulation

  • Ascorbic acid

Other names

  • Adenex
  • Allercorb
  • Ascoltin
  • Ascorb
  • Ascorbajen
  • Ascorbic acid
  • ASCORBIC ACID, L-
  • Ascorbicap
  • Ascorbutina
  • Ascorin
  • Ascorteal
  • Ascorvit
  • Cantan
  • Cantaxin
  • Catavin C
  • Cebicure
  • Cebion
  • Cebione
  • Cecon
  • Cegiolan
  • Ceglion
  • Celaskon
  • Celin
  • Cemagyl
  • Cemill
  • Cenetone
  • Cereon
  • Cergona
  • Cescorbat
  • Cetamid
  • Cetemican
  • Cevatine
  • Cevex
  • Cevimin
  • Cevital
  • Cevitamic acid
  • Cevitamin
  • Cevitan
  • Cevitex
  • Ciamin
  • Citriscorb
  • Colascor
  • Concemin
  • E 300
  • Hicee
  • L(+)- Ascorbic acid
  • L(+)-Ascorbic acid
  • L-Ascorbic Acid
  • L-xylo-Ascorbic acid
  • Laroscorbine
  • Lemascorb
  • Proscorbin
  • Redoxon
  • Ribena
  • Roscorbic
  • Testascorbic
  • Viforcit
  • Viscorin
  • Vitacimin
  • Vitacin
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamisin
  • Vitascorbol

Systematic names

  • (2R)-2-[(1S)-1,2-dihydroxyethyl]-3,4-dihydroxy-2H-furan-5-one

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 by hand rather than machine-read, and none has been written for this substance yet.

Sources for this page

  • ecfr retrieved 2026-09-07
  • gsfa retrieved 2026-09-07

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

Machine-readable:/api/v1/additives/ascorbic-acid.json