What is Magnesium lactate, DL- used for in food?

It is listed as an acidity regulator and a flour treatment agent — the role Codex assigns it. This page shows every function each regulator records, with the citation for each.

Where is Magnesium lactate, DL- permitted?

Of the seven regulators this site reads, Australia and New Zealand, South Korea and the Codex standard permit it. Each permission is for named foods at named levels, not a blanket one; the table on this page gives them with citations.

Is Magnesium lactate, DL- vegan?

Yes. Magnesium lactate, DL- is not derived from animals, and is suitable for vegetarians. This page says what it is made from and how.

Magnesium lactate, DL-

Q: What is INS 329?

INS 329 is Magnesium lactate, DL-. Magnesium lactate is an acidity regulator and a source of magnesium in fortified foods and supplements.

INS 329

Listed as an acidity regulator and a flour treatment agent by Codex.

Listed as acidity regulators (Codex) · flour treatment agents (Codex)

Codex Alimentarius: Acidity regulator — CXS 192-1995 Table One, INS 329
Codex Alimentarius: Flour treatment agent — CXS 192-1995 Table One, INS 329

Structure from PubChem CID 6536825 (National Library of Medicine, public domain). A depiction of one compound: where a listing covers a family, or a substance has no single structure, this page shows none.

Magnesium lactate is an acidity regulator and a source of magnesium in fortified foods and supplements.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Magnesium lactate, DL- by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
Jurisdiction	Status	Scope and limits	Citation
Australia and New ZealandFood Standards Australia New Zealand	Permitted, with conditions	54 food categories no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice) Show every food category 0 Preparations of food additives — GMP 1.1.1 Liquid milk (including buttermilk) — GMPOnly UHT goats milk. 1.1.2 Liquid milk products and flavoured liquid milk — GMP 1.2.2 Fermented milk products and rennetted milk products — GMP 1.3 Condensed milk and evaporated milk — GMP 1.4.1 Cream, reduced cream and light cream — GMPOnly UHT creams and creams receiving equivalent or greater heat treatments. 1.4.2 Cream products (flavoured, whipped, thickened, sour cream etc) — GMP 1.5 Dried milk, milk powder, cream powder — GMP 1.6 Cheese and cheese products — GMP 10.2 Liquid egg products — GMP 10.3 Frozen egg products — GMP 10.4 Dried or heat coagulated egg products — GMP 11.1.1 Rainbow sugar — GMP 11.3.1 Dried honey — GMP 11.4 Tabletop sweeteners — GMP 12.1.2 Reduced sodium salt mixture — GMP 12.1.3 Salt substitute — GMP 12.5 Yeast and yeast products — GMP 12.6 Vegetable protein products — GMP 13.3 Formulated meal replacements and formulated supplementary foods — GMP 13.4 Formulated supplementary sports foods — GMP 13.5 Food for special medical purposes — GMP 14.1.1.2 Carbonated, mineralised and soda waters — GMP 14.1.2.1 Fruit and vegetable juices — GMPFor juice separated by other than mechanical means only. 14.1.2.2 Fruit and vegetable juice products — GMP 14.1.3 Water based flavoured drinks — GMP 14.1.4 Formulated Beverages — GMP 14.1.5 Coffee, coffee substitutes, tea, herbal infusions and similar products — GMP 14.2.3 Wine based drinks and reduced alcohol wines — GMP 14.2.4.1 Fruit wine products and vegetable wine products — GMP 14.2.5 Spirits and liqueurs — GMP 14.3 Alcoholic beverages not included in item 14.2 — GMP 2.1 Edible oils essentially free of water — GMP 2.2.1.2 Butter products — GMP 2.2.1.3 Margarine and similar products — GMP 2.2.2 Oil emulsions (<80% oil) — GMP 20 Foods not included in items 0 to 14 — GMP 3 Ice cream and edible ices — GMP 4.1.3 Fruits and vegetables that are peeled, cut, or both peeled and cut — GMP 4.3 Processed fruits and vegetables — GMP 5.1 Chocolate and cocoa products — GMP 5.2 Sugar confectionery — GMP 5.4 Icings and frostings — GMP 6.3 Processed cereal and meal products — GMP 6.4 Flour products (including noodles and pasta) — GMP 7 Breads and bakery products — GMP 8.2 Processed meat, poultry and game products in whole cuts or pieces — GMP 8.3 Processed comminuted meat, poultry and game products, other than products listed in item 8.3.2 — GMP 8.3.2 Sausage and sausage meat containing raw, unprocessed meat — GMP 8.4 Edible casings — GMP 8.5 Animal protein products — GMP 9.2 Processed fish and fish products — GMP 9.3 Semi preserved fish and fish products — GMP 9.4 Fully preserved fish including canned fish products — GMP	Food Standards Code, Schedule 15, S15—5and 53 further provisionsretrieved 2026-10-17
CanadaHealth Canada	No listing matchedHealth Canada’s lists name additives without E or INS numbers, so this site matches them by exact name. A substance listed there under a name this site does not recognise has no row here.
European UnionEuropean Commission / EFSA	No listed food uses foundThis site has not matched this substance to any food use on this jurisdiction’s list of authorised food additives. A food additive may be used only in foods that list names. Flavourings, enzymes, processing aids and added nutrients are regulated separately and do not appear on it.
Great BritainFood Standards Agency / Food Standards Scotland	No listed food uses foundThis site has not matched this substance to any food use on this jurisdiction’s list of authorised food additives. A food additive may be used only in foods that list names. Flavourings, enzymes, processing aids and added nutrients are regulated separately and do not appear on it.
JapanConsumer Affairs Agency	No listing matchedThis site imports only Japan’s list of designated additives (Appended Table 1 to the Regulations for Enforcement of the Food Sanitation Act), matched by English name. Existing additives, natural flavouring agents and ordinary foods used as additives are permitted outside that list and are not imported, so an empty row does not show that Japan does not permit the substance.
South KoreaMinistry of Food and Drug Safety	Permitted, with conditions	Designated food additive: Standards and Specifications for Food Additives, Part III, 1. … Designated food additive: Standards and Specifications for Food Additives, Part III, 1. 일반식품첨가물 (general food additives), L-젖산마그네슘 (“Magnesium L-Lactate”, the English the Code prints beside it); the Code marks it as also usable as a nutrient fortifier; 3. 영양강화제 (nutrient fortifiers), L-젖산마그네슘; nutrient: 마그네슘 (Mg); the Code marks it as also usable as a general food additive. Main use (주용도) of L-젖산마그네슘: 산도조절제. Standard for use (사용기준) of L-젖산마그네슘: (1) [to be used under the general standard for use in II. 2. 1), the minimum amount that achieves the technical effect, with no limit set for this additive in particular] “II. 2. 1)의 규정에 따라 사용하여야 한다.” The Korean is the standard as published. There is no official English translation of the current Code (the English version on MFDS’s website is the 2020 edition and has no legal effect); the English in square brackets is this site’s description of what each sentence does, not a translation of the foods or the levels. Compositional specifications (Part IV) are not imported, nor are the general standards in Part II, which apply to every additive.	Standards and Specifications for Food Additives (식품첨가물의 기준 및 규격), MFDS Notification, Part III (Standards for use, by item)retrieved 2026-10-18
United StatesFood and Drug Administration	Not listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited.
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFA	Permitted, with conditions	1 food category no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice) Note 631 Except for use in plain fermented milks and drinks based on fermented milks that are heat treated after fermentation conforming to the Standard for Fermented Milks (CXS 243-2003) as an acidity regulator.	CXS 192-1995 Table Three, INS 329and 1 further provisionretrieved 2026-09-07

How much is permitted

A listing usually limits the quantity as well as the food. Only one of the forms that takes is a figure: quantum satis and good manufacturing practice permit the amount the technological effect requires and no more, which is a limit rather than the absence of one. Figures below are the range across every food category this page is listed in, and categories differ between regulators — see how much is permitted.

Australia and New Zealand	—	54 GMP
South Korea	—	1 no quantity stated
Codex Alimentarius	—	2 GMP

No regulator sets a figure for Magnesium lactate, DL-. That is not an absence of control: where the listing says quantum satis or good manufacturing practice, the quantity is limited to what the effect requires.

GRAS notices to the FDA

A GRAS notice is a company’s conclusion that a substance is generally recognised as safe for the use it describes. FDA’s letter responds to that conclusion, for that notifier and that use. It is not a listing in 21 CFR, and it is not counted as a US permission above. The substance and use are as FDA’s inventory words them; this site matched the notice to this page by exact name.

GRN No. 570 · Magnesium lactate · Exponent
Intended use: For use as a source of dietary magnesium in fruit flavored beverages at a level intended to provide 25.2 milligrams of magnesium lactate per serving.
FDA’s response (2016-01-26): At the notifier's request, FDA ceased to evaluate this notice

What it is made from

Made by neutralising fermentation-derived lactic acid with a magnesium base.

Vegan
Vegetarian

Compare other additives on the dietary indexes.

InChIKey: OVGXLJDWSLQDRT-UHFFFAOYSA-L
PubChem: CID 6536825

How JECFA defines it

The international specification for identity and purity, prepared by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and published by FAO. It is a different document from any above, written by a different body and revised on its own cycle; it is advisory, and a country adopts it or does not.

INS 329 Magnesium DL-Lactate

Synonyms: DL-Lactic acid magnesium salt, magnesium di-DL-lactate, INS No. 329 DL-Lactic acid magnesium salt; Magnesium di-DL-lactate

Assay, identification and purity criteria

Description and assay

Specification history: Prepared at the 27th JECFA (1983), published in FNP 28 (1983) and in FNP 52 (1992). Metals and arsenic specifications revised at the 59th JECFA (2002). An ADI 'not limited' for lactic acid and its salts was established at the 23rd JECFA (1979)
Chemical names: Magnesium DL(-)-2-hydroxypropionate
C.A.S. number: 18917-93-6
Chemical formula: Mg(C 3 H 5 O 3 ) 2 · xH 2 O (x = 0 - 3)
Formula weight: 202.45 (anhydrous)
Assay: Not less than 97.5% and not more than 101.5% on the dried basis
DESCRIPTION: White crystalline powder
FUNCTIONAL USES: Buffering agent, dough conditioner, dietary supplement
METHOD OF ASSAY: Dissolve about 0.5 g of the dried sample, accurately weighed, in 25 ml of water, add 5 ml of ammonia/ammonium chloride buffer TS and 0.1 ml of ethylenediaminetetraacetate until the solution is blue in colour. Each ml of 0.05 M disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate is equivalent to 10.12 mg of Mg(C 3 H 5 O 3 ) 2 .

Identification

Solubility (Vol. 4): Soluble in water when shaking with water for 30 min; practically insoluble in ethanol
Specific rotation (Vol. 4): [alpha] 25, D : + 2.0 o to - 2.0 o (3% w/v aqueous solution)
Test for magnesium (Vol. 4): Passes test
Test for lactate (Vol. 4): Passes test

Purity criteria

Loss on drying (Vol. 4): Not more than 23.0% (120 o , 24 h)
Chlorides (Vol. 4): Not more than 0.01% Test 1 g of the sample as directed in the Limit Test using 0.3 ml of 0.01 N hydrochloric acid in the control
Microbiological criteria (Vol. 4): Total aerobic microbial count: Max 1000/g Total yeast and moulds: Max 100/g E. coli : Absent in 1 g
Lead (Vol. 4): Not more than 2 mg/kg Determine using an atomic absorption technique appropriate to the specified level. The selection of sample size and method of sample preparation may be based on the principles of the method described in Volume 4, “Instrumental Methods.”

FAO JECFA Monograph 1 (2006)

INS 329 Magnesium L-Lactate

Synonyms: L-Lactic acid magnesium salt, magnesium di-L-lactate, INS No. 329 L-Lactic acid magnesium salt; Magnesium di-L-lactate

Assay, identification and purity criteria

Description and assay

Specification history: Prepared at the 27th JECFA (1983), published in FNP 28 (1983) and in FNP 52 (1992). Metals and arsenic specifications revised at the 63rd JECFA (2004). An ADI 'not limited' was established at the 23rd JECFA (1979)
Chemical names: Magnesium L(-)-2-hydroxypropionate dihydrate
C.A.S. number: 18917-93-6
Chemical formula: Mg(C 3 H 5 O 3 ) 2 · 2H 2 O
Formula weight: 238.48
Assay: Not less than 97.5% and not more than 101.5% on the dried basis
DESCRIPTION: White crystalline powder
FUNCTIONAL USES: Buffering agent, dough conditioner, dietary supplement
METHOD OF ASSAY: Dissolve about 0.5 g of the dried sample, accurately weighed, in 25 ml of water, add 5 ml of ammonia/ammonium chloride buffer TS and 0.1 ml of ethylenediaminetetraacetate until the solution is blue in colour. Each ml of 0.05 M disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate is equivalent to 10.12 mg of Mg(C 3 H 5 O 3 ) 2 .

Identification

Solubility (Vol. 4): Soluble in water when shaking with water for 30 min; practically insoluble in ethanol
Specific rotation (Vol. 4): [alpha] 25, D : -7.5 to -8.8 (5% w/v aqueous solution)
Test for magnesium (Vol. 4): Passes test
Test for lactate (Vol. 4): Passes test

Purity criteria

Loss on drying (Vol. 4): 14.0 - 17.0% (120 o , 24 h)
Chlorides (Vol. 4): Not more than 0.01% Test 1 g of the sample as directed in the Limit Test using 0.3 ml of 0.01 N hydrochloric acid in the control
Microbiological criteria (Vol. 4): Total aerobic microbial count: Max 1000/g Total yeast and moulds: Max 100/g E. coli : Absent in 1 g
Lead (Vol. 4): Not more than 2 mg/kg Determine using an atomic absorption technique appropriate to the specified level. The selection of sample size and method of sample preparation may be based on the principles of the method described in Volume 4, “Instrumental Methods.”

FAO JECFA Monograph 1 (2006)

Every name it appears under

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

INS number

CAS registry number

18917-93-6
26867-84-5

Other names

18917-93-6 (MAGNESIUM LACTATE)
Anhydrous magnesium lactate, dl-
Bis(lactato)magnesium
Dl-lactic acid magnesium salt
DL-magnesium lactate
Ins no.329
Ins-329
Lactic acid, magnesium salt
Mag-tab sr
Magnesium bis(2-hydroxypropanoate)
MAGNESIUM DL(-)-2-HYDROXYPROPIONATE
magnesium dl-lactate
Magnesium L-lactate trihydrate
Magnesium lactate
Magnesium lactate (1:2)
Magnesium lactate anhydrous
MAGNESIUM LACTATE, (+-)-
MAGNESIUM LACTATE, (+/-)-
MAGNESIUM LACTATE, DL-
Magnesium, bis(2-(hydroxy-kappaO)propanoato-kappaO)-, (T-4)-
Magnesium, bis(2-hydroxypropanoato-O(1),O(2))-, (T-4)-
Magnesium, bis(2-hydroxypropanoato-O(1),O(2))-, (T-4)-(9CI)
Magnesium, bis(2-hydroxypropanoato-O1,O2)-, (T-4)-
Magnesium, bis(lactato)-
Magnesium, bis(lactato)-(8CI)
Magnesium, bis[2-(hydroxy-.kappa.O)propanoato-.kappa.O]-, (T-4)-
Promagsan

Hazard reference values

Values set by assessing bodies. A body that has not set a value is not listed here.
Type	Value	Population	Assessed by	Opinion
ADI	not limited	—	JECFA	1979

Evidence and how bodies read it

Studies, and the differing conclusions regulators drew from them, are curated rather than machine-read, and none has been written for this substance yet.

Common questions

Assembled from what is above, in the words the questions are usually asked in. Each answer is the same statement the relevant section makes, with the same citations behind it.

What is INS 329?: INS 329 is Magnesium lactate, DL-. Magnesium lactate is an acidity regulator and a source of magnesium in fortified foods and supplements.
What is Magnesium lactate, DL- used for in food?: It is listed as an acidity regulator and a flour treatment agent — the role Codex assigns it. This page shows every function each regulator records, with the citation for each.
Where is Magnesium lactate, DL- permitted?: Of the seven regulators this site reads, Australia and New Zealand, South Korea and the Codex standard permit it. Each permission is for named foods at named levels, not a blanket one; the table on this page gives them with citations.
Is Magnesium lactate, DL- vegan?: Yes. Magnesium lactate, DL- is not derived from animals, and is suitable for vegetarians. This page says what it is made from and how.

Sources for this page

anz retrieved 2026-10-17
kr retrieved 2026-10-18
gsfa retrieved 2026-09-07
jecfaspecs retrieved 2026-09-23

Full licence terms and publisher details on Sources. How this page is built and updated: Method.

Machine-readable: a JSON record of this additive is given on request —how to ask for access.

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