Jagua (genipin-glycine) blue

INS 183

Used as a colour.

Jagua blue is a natural blue made from the fruit of the jagua tree, long used in South America as a skin dye. Like gardenia blue, the colour is formed by reaction rather than extracted ready-made.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Jagua (genipin-glycine) blue 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 73.225retrieved 2026-09-07
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

21 food categories

highest permitted level 2,000 mg/kg

Show every food category
  • 01.1.4 Flavoured Fluid Milk Drinks — 160 mg/kg
  • 01.6.4.2 Flavoured processed cheese, including containing fruit, vegetables, meat, etc. — 44 mg/kg
  • 01.7 Dairy-based desserts (e.g. pudding, fruit or flavoured yoghurt) — 120 mg/kg
  • 02.3 Fat emulsions mainly of type oil-in-water, including mixed and/or flavoured products based on fat emulsions — 160 mg/kg
  • 02.4 Fat-based desserts excluding dairy-based dessert products of food category 01.7 — 200 mg/kg
  • 03.0 Edible ices, including sherbet and sorbet — 120 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.11 Fruit fillings for pastries — 120 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.5 — 120 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.8 Fruit preparations, including pulp, purees, fruit toppings and coconut milk — 120 mg/kg
  • 04.1.2.9 Fruit-based desserts, incl. fruit-flavoured water-based desserts — 120 mg/kg
  • 05.1.4 Cocoa and chocolate products — 800 mg/kg
  • 05.2 Confectionery including hard and soft candy, nougats, etc. other than food categories 05.1, 05.3, and 05.4 — 800 mg/kg
  • 05.3 Chewing gum — 800 mg/kg
  • 05.4 Decorations (e.g. for fine bakery wares), toppings (non-fruit), and sweet sauces — 120 mg/kg
  • 06.3 Breakfast cereals, including rolled oats — 2,000 mg/kg
  • 06.5 Cereal and starch based desserts (e.g. rice pudding, tapioca pudding) — 84 mg/kg
  • 11.4 Other sugars and syrups (e.g. xylose, maple syrup, sugar toppings) — 120 mg/kg
  • 13.4 Dietetic formulae for slimming purposes and weight reduction — 65 mg/kg
  • 13.5 Dietetic foods (e.g. supplementary foods for dietary use) excluding products of food categories — 65 mg/kg
  • 14.1.4 Water-based flavoured drinks, including "sport," “energy,” or "electrolyte" drinks and particulated drinks — 80 mg/kg
  • 15.1 Snacks - potato, cereal, flour or starch based (from roots and tubers, pulses and legumes) — 600 mg/kg
CXS 192-1995 Table One, INS 183and 20 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Genipin from the unripe fruit of Genipa americana is reacted with the amino acid glycine to form the blue pigment.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian

Every name it appears under

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

INS number

  • 183

As it appears in regulation

  • Jagua (genipin-glycine) blue

Other names

  • JAGUA (GENIPIN-GLYCINE) BLUE (JAGUA BLUE)

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/jagua-genipin-glycine-blue.json