Glycerin

E number E422INS 422CAS 56-81-5

Used as a thickener — Codex also lists it as humectant.

Glycerol, sold as glycerin, is a sweet-tasting liquid used as a humectant to keep foods moist — in baked goods, confectionery, dried fruit and low-fat spreads.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Glycerin 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 182.1320retrieved 2026-09-07
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

14 food categories

no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice)

Show every food category
  • 01.2.2 Renneted milk (plain) — 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 — GMP
  • 08.1.1 Fresh meat, poultry and game, whole pieces or cuts — GMP
  • 08.1.2 Fresh meat, poultry and game, comminuted — GMP
  • 09.2.2 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
  • 10.2.2 Frozen egg products — GMP
  • 11.4 Other sugars and syrups (e.g. xylose, maple syrup, sugar toppings) — 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 422and 14 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Obtained as a by-product of soap manufacture and biodiesel production, or by hydrolysing fats and oils. Those fats may be plant or animal, and glycerin can also be made synthetically from petroleum. The route is not declared, which makes this a genuinely open question on a label.

  • Vegan status depends on the source
  • Vegetarian status depends on the source
  • May raise a halal question
  • May raise a kosher question

This is not an omission. What this additive is made from is not fixed — depending on the manufacturer it may be plant, animal or microbial in origin, nobody is required to say which, and the same product can change source between production runs. Ask the manufacturer if it matters to you; a label cannot answer it.

CAS registry number
56-81-5
InChIKey
PEDCQBHIVMGVHV-UHFFFAOYSA-N
PubChem
CID 753

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E422

INS number

  • 422

CAS registry number

  • 56-81-5

As it appears in regulation

  • Glycerin

Other names

  • 1,2,3-Propanetriol
  • 1,2,3-trihydroxypropane
  • 90 Technical glycerine
  • Antizom
  • blink boost
  • Brazilian Firm
  • Citifluor AF 2
  • Clyzerin, wasserfrei
  • Dagralax
  • Dryness Relief
  • E 422
  • FEMA No. 2525
  • Firming
  • Glicerina
  • Glicerol
  • glicerolo
  • Glycerin
  • Glycerin Adult
  • Glycerin Cream
  • Glycerin, anhydrous
  • Glycerine
  • Glycerinum
  • Glyceritol
  • Glycerol
  • Glycerol 85%
  • Glycerolum
  • Glycogelatin
  • Glycyl alcohol
  • Glyrol
  • Glysanin
  • Grocolene
  • Inclear
  • Incorporation factor
  • INS NO.422
  • INS-422
  • keragel
  • keragelT
  • Keybells
  • MeWrinkle
  • Monagra
  • Monoctanoin Component D
  • Moon
  • myCellCare
  • Nirolex
  • Ophthalgan
  • Optim
  • Osmoglyn
  • PDC6A3C0OX
  • PZN 7474853
  • RepoveSolutionA
  • RepoveSolutionB
  • Sayak
  • Scrub
  • Synthetic glycerin
  • Synthetic glycerine
  • Tixylix toddler
  • Trihydroxypropane
  • Tryhydroxypropane
  • Vitrosupos
  • Waterhouse

Systematic names

  • Propane-1,2,3-triol

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/glycerin.json