Disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate

INS 386

Used as a preservative — Codex also lists it as antioxidant, colour retention agent.

This is the Codex listing for disodium EDTA, a sequestrant that locks up trace metals so they cannot catalyse rancidity or browning.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
JurisdictionStatusScope and limitsCitation
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 / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

36 food categories

highest permitted level 1,000 mg/kg

Show every food category
  • 02.2.2 Fat spreads, dairy fat spreads and blended spreads — 100 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.10 Fermented fruit products — 250 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.11 Fruit fillings for pastries — 650 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.2 Dried fruit — 265 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.3 Fruit in vinegar, oil, or brine — 250 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.5 — 130 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.6 Fruit-based spreads (e.g. chutney) excluding products of food category — 100 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 — 100 mg/kg
  • 04.2.2.2 Dried vegetables (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes, and aloe vera), seaweeds, and nuts and seeds — 800 mg/kg
  • 04.2.2.3 Vegetables (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes, and aloe vera), and seaweeds in vinegar, oil, brine, or soybean sauce — 250 mg/kg
  • 04.2.2.4 Canned or bottled (pasteurized) or retort pouch vegetables (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes, and aloe vera), and seaweeds — 365 mg/kg
  • 04.2.2.5 Vegetable (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes, and aloe vera), seaweed, and nut and seed purees and spreads (e.g. peanut butter) — 250 mg/kg
  • 04.2.2.6 Vegetable (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes, and aloe vera), seaweed, and nut and seed pulps and preparations (e.g. vegetable desserts and sauces, candied vegetables) other than food category 04.2.2.5 — 80 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, — 250 mg/kg
  • 04.2.2.8 Cooked or fried vegetables (including mushrooms and fungi, roots and tubers, pulses and legumes, and aloe vera), and seaweeds — 250 mg/kg
  • 05.1.3 Cocoa-based spreads, incl. fillings — 50 mg/kg
  • 06.5 Cereal and starch based desserts (e.g. rice pudding, tapioca pudding) — 315 mg/kg
  • 08.3.2 Heat-treated processed comminuted meat, poultry, and game products — 35 mg/kg
  • 09.2.1 Frozen fish, fish fillets, and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 75 mg/kg
  • 09.2.2 Frozen battered fish, fish fillets and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 75 mg/kg
  • 09.2.4.1 Cooked fish and fish products — 50 mg/kg
  • 09.3.2 Fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans and echinoderms, pickled and/or in brine — 250 mg/kg
  • 09.4 Fully preserved, including canned or fermented fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 340 mg/kg
  • 10.2.3 Dried and/or heat coagulated egg products — 200 mg/kg
  • 11.6 Table-top sweeteners, including those containing high-intensity sweeteners — 1,000 mg/kg
  • 12.2 Herbs, spices, seasonings, and condiments (e.g. seasoning for instant noodles) — 70 mg/kg
  • 12.4 Mustards — 75 mg/kg
  • 12.6.1 Emulsified sauces and dips (e.g. mayonnaise, salad dressing, onion dips) — 100 mg/kg
  • 12.6.2 Non-emulsified sauces (e.g. ketchup, cheese sauce, cream sauce, brown gravy) — 75 mg/kg
  • 12.7 Salads (e.g. macaroni salad, potato salad) and sandwich spreads excluding cocoa-and nut-based spreads of food categories 04.2.2.5 and 05.1.3 — 100 mg/kg
  • 13.6 Food supplements — 150 mg/kg
  • 14.1.4 Water-based flavoured drinks, including "sport," “energy,” or "electrolyte" drinks and particulated drinks — 200 mg/kg
  • 14.1.5 Coffee, coffee substitutes, tea, herbal infusions, and other hot cereal and grain beverages, excluding cocoa — 35 mg/kg
  • 14.2.1 Beer and malt beverages — 25 mg/kg
  • 14.2.6 Distilled spirituous beverages containing more than 15% alcohol — 25 mg/kg
  • 14.2.7 Aromatized alcoholic beverages (e.g. beer, wine and spirituous cooler-type beverages, low-alcoholic refreshers) — 25 mg/kg
CXS 192-1995 Table One, INS 386and 35 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Produced by chemical synthesis and neutralised with sodium. It passes through the body largely unchanged.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian

Every name it appears under

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

INS number

  • 386

Other names

  • Disodium
  • Disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate

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

  • 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/disodium-ethylenediaminetetraacetate.json