Metatartaric acid

E number E353INS 353CAS 39469-81-3

Listed as an acidity regulator by Canada and Codex.

Listed as acidity regulators (CA, Codex) · emulsifiers (Codex) · thickeners (Codex) · stabilisers (Codex)
Chemical structure of Metatartaric acid, from PubChem compound 92024228
Structure from PubChem CID 92024228 (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.

Metatartaric acid is used in winemaking to stop tartrate crystals forming in the bottle. It is a wine treatment rather than a general food acid.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Metatartaric acid by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
JurisdictionStatusScope and limitsCitation
Australia and New ZealandFood Standards Australia New ZealandPermitted, with conditions

57 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.
  • 14.1.2.1 Fruit and vegetable juices — GMP
  • 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
  • 14.2.2 Wine, sparkling wine and fortified wine — GMP
  • 14.2.3 Wine based drinks and reduced alcohol wines — GMP
  • 14.2.4 Fruit wine, vegetable wine and mead (including cider and perry) — 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 56 further provisionsretrieved 2026-10-17
CanadaHealth CanadaPermitted, with conditions

highest permitted level 100 mg/kg

In: Fruit wine; Wine. Purpose: Acidity regulator. Limit: 100 ppm.

Health Canada, List of Permitted Acidity Regulators and Acid-Reacting Materials (List 10), item M.10retrieved 2026-10-17
European UnionEuropean Commission / EFSAPermitted, with conditions

1 food category

highest permitted level 100 mg/l

ML = 100 mg/l. only made wine and wino z soku winogronowego and aromatyzowane wino z soku winogronowego.

Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, Annex II, as amended by (EU) No 0509/2013retrieved 2026-10-18
Great BritainFood Standards Agency / Food Standards ScotlandPermitted, with conditions

2 food categories

highest permitted level 100 mg/kg or mg/l

Show every food category
  • 14.2.4 Fruit wine and made wine — 100 mg/kg or mg/lML = 100. only made wine and wino z soku winogronowego and aromatyzowane wino z soku winogronowego.
  • 14.2.8 Other alcoholic drinks including mixtures of alcoholic drinks with non-alcoholic drinks and spirits with less than 15 % of alcohol — 100 mg/kg or mg/lML = 100. only nalewka na winie z soku winogronowego and aromatyzowana nalewka na winie z soku winogronowego.
Assimilated Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008and 1 further provisionretrieved 2026-10-18
JapanConsumer Affairs AgencyPermitted, with conditions
Designated additive: Appended Table 1, item 409, メタ酒石酸 (“Metatartaric Acid” in the unofficial English translation). …

Designated additive: Appended Table 1, item 409, メタ酒石酸 (“Metatartaric Acid” in the unofficial English translation). Standards for use — Specifications and Standards for Foods, Food Additives, etc. (MHW Notification No. 370 of 1959), Part II (Food Additives), F (Standards for use), entry メタ酒石酸: (1) [may be used only in the foods stated] “メタ酒石酸は、ぶどう酒以外の食品に使用してはならない。” (2) [sets maximum levels of use for the foods stated] “メタ酒石酸の使用量は、ぶどう酒1kgにつき0.10g以下でなければならない。” The Japanese is the standard as published. There is no official English translation of the Notification; 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 for this additive, in the same Notification, are not imported and are not shown here; nor are the general rules in F 添加物一般, which apply to every additive.

Regulations for Enforcement of the Food Sanitation Act (MHW Ordinance No. 23 of 1948), Appended Table 1retrieved 2026-10-18
South KoreaMinistry of Food and Drug SafetyNo listing matchedThis site imports Part III of South Korea’s Standards and Specifications for Food Additives, matched by CAS number, then INS number, then exact name. Mixed preparations and sanitisers are not imported, and an entry whose identifiers disagreed with a page’s is held for review, so an empty row does not show that South Korea does not permit the substance.
United StatesFood and Drug AdministrationNot listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited.
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

1 food category

highest permitted level 100 mg/kg

CXS 192-1995 Table One, INS 353, food category 14.2.3retrieved 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—57 GMP
Canada100 mg/kg1 numeric limit
European Union100 mg/kg1 numeric limit
Great Britain100 mg/kg2 numeric limit
Japan—1 no quantity stated
Codex Alimentarius100 mg/kg1 numeric limit

What it is made from

Made by heating tartaric acid, which partially polymerises it. Its effect is temporary, since it slowly reverts to tartaric acid in the bottle.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian

Compare other additives on the dietary indexes.

CAS registry number
39469-81-3
InChIKey
KWBYTEOPKORPPY-UHFFFAOYSA-N
PubChem
CID 92024228

How the EU defines it

The legal specification an additive must meet to be sold as this E number in the EU — what it is, how it may be made, and the purity it must reach. From Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012.

E 353 Metatartaric acid

Synonyms: Ditartaric acid

Assay, identification and purity criteria

Description and assay

Chemical name
Metatartaric acid
Chemical formula
C₄H₆O₆
Assay
Not less than 99,5 %
Description
Crystalline or powder form with a white or yellowish colour. Very deliquescent with a faint odour of caramel

Identification

Solubility
Very soluble in water and ethanol
Identification test
Place a sample of 1 to 10 mg of this substance in a test tube with 2 ml of concentrated sulphuric acid and 2 drops of sulpho-resorcinol reagent. When heated to 150 °C, an intense violet coloration appears

Purity criteria

Arsenic
Not more than 3 mg/kg
Lead
Not more than 2 mg/kg
Mercury
Not more than 1 mg/kg

Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012, Annex, E 353

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E353

INS number

  • 353

CAS registry number

  • 39469-81-3
  • 4450-95-7
  • 56959-20-7

As it appears in regulation

  • Metatartaric acid

Other names

  • 2,2'-(3,6-Dioxo-1,4-dioxane-2,5-diyl)bis(2-hydroxyacetic acid)
  • 2,2'-(3,6-Dioxo-1,4-dioxane-2,5-diyl)bis(hydroxyacetic acid)
  • Ditartaric acid
  • E 353
  • I+/-2,I+/-5-Dihydroxy-3,6-dioxo-1,4-dioxane-2,5-diacetic acid
  • KWBYTEOPKORPPY-UHFFFAOYSA-N
  • METATARTARIC ACID

Hazard reference values

The two committees set different figures. EFSA's acceptable daily intake is 240 mg/kg bw/day (2020); JECFA's is 30 mg/kg bw/day (2017). An acceptable daily intake is a reference value set by a committee, not a threshold above which harm begins. The lower figure is not a finding that the other body was wrong: the two work to different terms of reference, on their own timetables, and sometimes from different data. This site states both and chooses between them nowhere. See where the two committees differ.

Values set by assessing bodies. A body that has not set a value is not listed here.
TypeValuePopulationAssessed byOpinion
ADI240 mg/kg bw/dayconsumersEFSA FAF2020
ADI30 mg/kg bw/day—JECFA2017

Evidence and how bodies read it

What assessing bodies concluded

Each conclusion is paraphrased in the body's own framing, from the published opinion linked beneath it. Where bodies differ, both stand; this site does not adjudicate between them or add a view of its own.

  1. EFSA 2020

    The FAF Panel concluded that metatartaric acid (E 353), presumed to hydrolyse fully to L(+)-tartaric acid, should be included in the group ADI of 240 mg/kg bw/day (as tartaric acid) for tartaric acid and tartrates, and that there is no safety concern at the reported uses and use levels.

    Source document

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 E 353?
E 353 is Metatartaric acid. Metatartaric acid is used in winemaking to stop tartrate crystals forming in the bottle. It is a wine treatment rather than a general food acid.
What is Metatartaric acid used for in food?
It is listed as an acidity regulator — the role Canada and Codex assign it. This page shows every function each regulator records, with the citation for each.
Where is Metatartaric acid permitted?
Of the seven regulators this site reads, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, the EU, Great Britain, Japan 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 Metatartaric acid vegan?
Yes. Metatartaric acid 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
  • ca retrieved 2026-10-17
  • eu retrieved 2026-10-18
  • gb retrieved 2026-10-18
  • jp retrieved 2026-10-18
  • gsfa retrieved 2026-09-07
  • euspecs retrieved 2026-10-18

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

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