Fumaric acid

E number E297INS 297CAS 110-17-8

Used as an acidity regulator.

Fumaric acid is a strongly sour acidity regulator used in confectionery, drink powders and bakery fillings. It dissolves slowly, which makes it useful where a delayed acid release is wanted.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Fumaric 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 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

11 food categories

highest permitted level 700 mg/kg

Show every food category
  • 01.2.1.2 Fermented milks (plain), heat-treated after fermentation — 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
  • 06.4.1 Fresh pastas and noodles and like products — 700 mg/kg
  • 06.4.2 Dried pastas and noodles and like products — 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
  • 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 297and 11 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Produced industrially by isomerising maleic acid, which is petroleum-derived. It also occurs naturally in many plants and in the human body as part of normal metabolism.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian
CAS registry number
110-17-8
InChIKey
VZCYOOQTPOCHFL-OWOJBTEDSA-N
PubChem
CID 444972

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E297

INS number

  • 297

CAS registry number

  • 110-17-8

Other names

  • (2E)-2-butenedioic acid
  • (2E)-but-2-enedioic acid
  • (E)-1,2-Ethylenedicarboxylic acid
  • (E)-2-Butenedioate
  • (E)-2-Butenedioic acid
  • (E)-but-2-enedioate;hydron
  • (E)-but-2-enedioic acid
  • (E)-Butenedioic acid
  • 1,2-Ethenedicarboxylic acid, trans-
  • 1,2-Ethylenedicarboxylic acid, (E)
  • 2-(E)-Butenedioic acid
  • 2-Butenedioic acid (2E)-
  • 2-Butenedioic acid, (E)-
  • Allomaleate
  • Allomaleic acid
  • Allomaleic-acid
  • Allomalenic acid
  • Boletate
  • Boletic acid
  • Boletic-acid
  • BRN 0605763
  • but-2-enedioicacid
  • Butenedioic acid, (E)-
  • CAS-110-17-8
  • Caswell No. 465E
  • CCRIS 1039
  • E 297
  • E-2-Butenedioic acid
  • EPA Pesticide Chemical Code 051201
  • FC 33 (acid)
  • FEMA No. 2488
  • FEMA Number 2488
  • FERROUS LACTATE FUMARIC ACID
  • fum
  • fumarate, 10
  • Fumaric acid
  • Fumaric acid (8CI)
  • Fumaric acid (NF)
  • fumaricacid
  • Fumaricum acidum
  • Fumarsaeure
  • fumeric acid
  • furmaric acid
  • Futrans-2-Butenedioic Acid
  • HSDB 710
  • INS NO.297
  • INS-297
  • Kyselina fumarova
  • Lichenate
  • Lichenic acid
  • Lichenic acid (VAN)
  • Maleic acid-2,3-d2
  • Polymaleicacid
  • trans-1,2-Ethylenedicarboxylic acid
  • trans-2-Butenedioic acid
  • trans-but-2-enedioic acid
  • trans-Butenedioate
  • trans-Butenedioic acid
  • Tumaric acid
  • USAF EK-P-583

Systematic names

  • (E)-but-2-enedioic acid

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/fumaric-acid.json