Calcium carbonate

E number E170INS 170(i)CAS 471-34-1

Used as a colour — Codex also lists it as acidity regulator, anticaking agent, firming agent, flour treatment agent, stabilizer.

Calcium carbonate is chalk, used in food as a white colour, an anticaking agent, an acidity regulator and a calcium fortificant. It is one of the additives that does several jobs at once, which is why Codex assigns it a long list of functional classes.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Calcium carbonate 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 184.1191and 1 further provisionretrieved 2026-09-07
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

22 food categories

highest permitted level 10,000 mg/kg

Show every food category
  • 01.2.1.1 Fermented milks (plain), not heat-treated after fermentation — GMP
  • 01.2.1.2 Fermented milks (plain), heat-treated after fermentation — GMP
  • 01.2.2 Renneted milk (plain) — GMP
  • 01.4.1 Pasteurized cream (plain) — GMP
  • 01.4.2 Sterilized and UHT creams, whipping and whipped creams, and reduced fat creams (plain) — GMP
  • 01.5.1 Milk powder and cream powder (plain) — GMP
  • 01.8.2 Dried whey and whey products, excluding whey cheeses — 10,000 mg/kg
  • 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
  • 06.4.1 Fresh pastas and noodles and like products — GMP
  • 06.4.2 Dried pastas and noodles and like products — GMP
  • 08.1.1 Fresh meat, poultry and game, whole pieces or cuts — GMP
  • 08.1.2 Fresh meat, poultry and game, comminuted — 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
  • 12.1.1 Salt — GMP
  • 12.1.2 Salt substitutes — GMP
  • 12.2.1 Herbs and spices — GMP
  • 13.2 Complementary foods for infants and young children — GMP
  • 14.1.5 Coffee, coffee substitutes, tea, herbal infusions, and other hot cereal and grain beverages, excluding cocoa — GMP
CXS 192-1995 Table Three, INS 170(i)and 22 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Obtained by grinding and purifying limestone or marble, or precipitated from a calcium salt solution. It is a mineral product; no animal or plant material is involved.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian
CAS registry number
471-34-1
InChIKey
VTYYLEPIZMXCLO-UHFFFAOYSA-L
PubChem
CID 10112

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E170

INS number

  • 170(i)

CAS registry number

  • 1317-65-3
  • 471-34-1

As it appears in regulation

  • Calcium carbonate

Other names

  • Aeromatt
  • Akadama
  • Albacar
  • Albafil
  • Albaglos
  • Albaglos SF
  • Allied whiting
  • Aragonite
  • Atomite
  • Calcene CO
  • Calcene NC
  • Calcicoll
  • Calcite
  • Calcium carbonate
  • Calcium carbonate (1:1)
  • Calmos
  • Calmote
  • Calofort S
  • Calofort T
  • Calofort U
  • Calopake F
  • Calopake FS
  • Calopake H
  • Calopake PC
  • Calseeds
  • Caltec
  • Caltrate
  • Calwhite
  • Camel-carb
  • Camel-tex
  • Camel-wite
  • Carbium
  • Carbonic acid calcium salt (1:1)
  • Carusis P
  • Chalk
  • Chemcarb
  • CI Pigment White 18
  • Clefnon
  • Dacote
  • Duramite
  • E 170
  • Gilder's whiting
  • Hakuenka CC
  • Hakuenka CCR
  • Hakuenka DD
  • Hakuenka O
  • Hakuenka PX
  • Hakuenka PZ
  • Homocal D
  • Hydrocarb
  • Kotamite
  • Levigated chalk
  • limestone
  • Marble dust
  • Marble white
  • Marfil
  • Microcarb
  • Micromya
  • Multifex MM
  • Multiflex MM
  • Multiflex SC
  • Neoanticid
  • Precipitated calcium carbonate
  • Tums

Systematic names

  • Calcium carbonate

Hazard reference values

Values set by assessing bodies. A body that has not set a value is not listed here.
TypeValuePopulationAssessed byOpinion
ADI1consumersEFSA FAF2023

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/calcium-carbonate.json