Lecithin

INS 322(i)

Used as an antioxidant — Codex also lists it as emulsifier, flour treatment agent.

Lecithin is the most widely used natural emulsifier, found in chocolate, margarine, baked goods and infant formula. It is what keeps chocolate smooth and stops it seizing.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Lecithin 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 184.1400retrieved 2026-09-07
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

32 food categories

highest permitted level 5,000 mg/kg

Show every food category
  • 01.1.2 Other Fluid Milk (plain) — GMP
  • 01.2.2 Renneted milk (plain) — 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
  • 02.1.1 Butter oil, anhydrous milkfat, ghee — GMP
  • 02.1.2 Vegetable oils and fats — GMP
  • 02.1.3 Lard, tallow, fish oil, and other animal fats — GMP
  • 04.1.1.2 Surface-treated fresh fruit — GMP
  • 04.2.1.2 Surface-treated fresh 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
  • 06.2.1 Flours — GMP
  • 06.4.1 Fresh pastas and noodles and like products — GMP
  • 06.4.2 Dried 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
  • 09.1.2 Fresh molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — GMP
  • 09.2.1 Frozen fish, fish fillets, and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 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
  • 10.2.1 Liquid egg products — 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
  • 13.1.1 Infant formulae — 5,000 mg/kg
  • 13.1.2 Follow-up formulae — 5,000 mg/kg
  • 13.1.3 Formulae for special medical purposes for infants — 5,000 mg/kg
  • 13.2 Complementary foods for infants and young children — 5,000 mg/kg
  • 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 322(i)and 32 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Extracted from soya beans, sunflower seeds or rapeseed, and historically from egg yolk, which is where the name comes from. Soy and sunflower are the usual commercial sources today, but the listing covers egg-derived lecithin too, so the source matters to both an allergy and a vegan diet and is not always stated.

  • Vegan status depends on the source
  • Vegetarian

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.

InChIKey
JLPULHDHAOZNQI-JLOPVYAASA-N
PubChem
CID 16213884

Every name it appears under

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

INS number

  • 322(i)

CAS registry number

  • 620098-18-2
  • 97281-47-5

As it appears in regulation

  • Lecithin

Other names

  • 1,2-Diacyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine
  • 1-hexadecanoyl-2-(9E,12E-octadecadienoyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine
  • 1-Palmitoyl-2-linoleoyl-sn-glycero-3-PC
  • 2-linoleoyl-1-palmitoyl-sn-glyc-ero-3-phosphocholine
  • ActiFlow 68SB
  • Alcolec S
  • CCRIS 7265
  • Emulthin M35
  • Gliddex
  • Granulestin
  • HSDB 1903
  • JLPULHDHAOZNQI-JLOPVYAASA-N
  • Kelecin
  • L-alpha-Lecithin
  • LECITHIN
  • Lecithin (NF)
  • Lecithine
  • Ovovitellin
  • Phosphatidylcholines,soya
  • Phospholipid with Choline
  • Phospholutein
  • Soybean phosphatidylcholine

Systematic names

  • (2-{[(2R)-3-(HEXADECANOYLOXY)-2-[(9E,12E)-OCTADECA-9,12-DIENOYLOXY]PROPYL PHOSPHONATO]OXY}ETHYL)TRIMETHYLAZANIUM
  • 3,5,8-Trioxa-4-phosphahexacosa-17,20-dien-1-aminium, 4-hydroxy-N,N,N-trimethyl-9-oxo-7-[[(1-oxohexadecyl)oxy]methyl]-, inner salt, 4-oxide, (R)-
  • [(2R)-3-hexadecanoyloxy-2-[(9E,12E)-octadeca-9,12-dienoyl]oxypropyl] 2-(trimethylazaniumyl)ethyl phosphate

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/lecithin.json