Magnesium chloride

E number E511INS 511CAS 7786-30-3

Used as a stabilizer — Codex also lists it as colour retention agent, firming agent.

Magnesium chloride is a firming agent and the traditional coagulant for tofu, where it is known by its Japanese name, nigari. It sets soy milk into curd.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Magnesium chloride 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 184.1426retrieved 2026-09-07
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

14 food categories

no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice)

Show every food category
  • 01.2.1.1 Fermented milks (plain), not heat-treated after fermentation — GMP
  • 01.2.1.2 Fermented milks (plain), heat-treated after fermentation — GMP
  • 01.2.2 Renneted milk (plain) — GMP
  • 08.1.1 Fresh meat, poultry and game, whole pieces or cuts — GMP
  • 08.1.2 Fresh meat, poultry and game, comminuted — GMP
  • 09.2.1 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
  • 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 511and 14 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Recovered from seawater or from brines after other salts are removed.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian
CAS registry number
7786-30-3
InChIKey
TWRXJAOTZQYOKJ-UHFFFAOYSA-L
PubChem
CID 5360315

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E0183
  • E511

INS number

  • 511

CAS registry number

  • 17638-61-8
  • 56491-84-0
  • 7786-30-3

As it appears in regulation

  • Magnesium chloride

Other names

  • Aerotex Accelerator MX
  • Anhydrous magnesium chloride
  • Bestmade Natural Products Mag Mur
  • Bischofite
  • Bischofite (mgcl2.6h2o)
  • Chloride, Magnesium
  • Chloromagnesite
  • Cramp-Z
  • E 511
  • Fibro Flex
  • GZE Magnesium Oil
  • INS NO.511
  • INS-511
  • Magnesia Muriatica
  • Magnesium chloride
  • Magnesium chloride (Mg2Cl4)
  • Magnesium chloride (MgCl2)
  • Magnesium chloride anhydrous
  • Magnesium chloride solution 2M in water (19.2 - 20%wt)
  • Magnesium chloride, dry, 99.99% trace metals grade -10 Mesh beads
  • Magnesium Chloride, Powder
  • Magnesium Chloride, Powder, < 200um
  • Magnesium dichloride
  • magnesium(II)chloride
  • Magnesiumchlorid
  • magnesiumchloride
  • MgCl2
  • MultiBic component magnesium chloride hexahydrate
  • Reagecon Magnesium Chloride 0.01M according to United States Pharmacopoeia (USP)
  • TMT 2

Systematic names

  • Magnesium dichloride
  • Reagecon Magnesium Chloride 0.1M according to European Pharmacopoeia (EP) Chapter 4 (4.2.2)

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/magnesium-chloride.json