Calcium chloride

E number E509INS 509CAS 10043-52-4

Used as a thickener — Codex also lists it as firming agent, stabilizer.

Calcium chloride is a firming agent used in canned vegetables and pickles to keep them crisp, in cheesemaking to help milk set, and in brewing to adjust water chemistry.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Calcium chloride 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 184.1193retrieved 2026-09-07
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

15 food categories

no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice)

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
  • 01.4.1 Pasteurized cream (plain) — GMP
  • 01.4.2 Sterilized and UHT creams, whipping and whipped creams, and reduced fat creams (plain) — GMP
  • 01.8.2 Dried whey and whey products, excluding whey cheeses — GMP
  • 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
  • 08.1.1 Fresh meat, poultry and game, whole pieces or cuts — 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
  • 09.2.4.1 Cooked fish and fish products — GMP
  • 09.2.4.3 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
  • 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 509and 15 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Obtained as a by-product of the Solvay soda process or from natural brines.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian
CAS registry number
10043-52-4
InChIKey
UXVMQQNJUSDDNG-UHFFFAOYSA-L
PubChem
CID 5284359

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E509

INS number

  • 509

CAS registry number

  • 10043-52-4

As it appears in regulation

  • Calcium chloride

Other names

  • 856 - Pickles
  • Bovikalc
  • CaCl
  • CaCl2
  • Cacl2 (anhydrous)
  • CaCl2 Solution
  • CaCl2.xH2O
  • Cal Plus
  • Calcarea muriatica
  • Calcium chloride
  • Calcium chloride (CaCl2)
  • CALCIUM CHLORIDE 10%
  • Calcium chloride 10% in plastic container
  • Calcium chloride anhydrous
  • Calcium Chloride anhydrous prills
  • Calcium chloride anhydrous, powder
  • Calcium chloride solution, 0.5 M in water
  • Calcium chloride ultra dry
  • Calcium chloride, anhydrous, dessicant, ACS grade, granular
  • Calcium chloride, Prilled
  • Calcium Choride
  • Calcium dichloride
  • Calcium Dichloride Hydrate
  • Calcium(2+) chloride
  • Calcium(II) chloride
  • calcium(II) chloride hydrate
  • Calcium-45 chloride
  • Calcosan
  • Calplus
  • Caltac
  • chlorocalcium
  • chlorocalcium hydrate
  • Dowflake
  • E 509
  • INS NO.509
  • INS-509
  • Intergravin-orales
  • Kalgan
  • Liquidow
  • MultiBic component calcium chloride dihydrate
  • Peladow
  • Reagecon Calcium Chloride 75 g/L in Water TS Solution according to Japanese Pharmacopoeia (JP)
  • Snomelt
  • Superflake anhydrous
  • Uramine MC

Systematic names

  • calcium;dichloride

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/calcium-chloride.json