Microcrystalline cellulose (Cellulose gel) — Food Additive Index

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Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Microcrystalline cellulose (Cellulose gel) by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
Jurisdiction	Status	Scope and limits	Citation
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	26 food categories highest permitted level 10,000 mg/kg Show every food category 01.1.2 Other Fluid Milk (plain) — GMP 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 01.4.1 Pasteurized cream (plain) — GMP 01.4.2 Sterilized and UHT creams, whipping and whipped creams, and reduced fat creams (plain) — GMP 01.5.1 Milk powder and cream powder (plain) — GMP 01.8.2 Dried whey and whey products, excluding whey cheeses — 10,000 mg/kg 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 09.2.1 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 09.2.4.2 Cooked molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 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 11.2 Brown sugar excluding products of food category 11.1.3 — GMP 11.4 Other sugars and syrups (e.g. xylose, maple syrup, sugar toppings) — GMP 12.1.2 Salt substitutes — GMP 12.2.1 Herbs and spices — 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 460(i)and 26 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Made by treating purified wood pulp or cotton linters with acid, which dissolves the disordered regions of the cellulose and leaves crystalline fragments behind. These are then washed and dried.

Vegan
Vegetarian

Every name it appears under

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

INS number

460(i)

Other names

MICROCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE (CELLULOSE GEL)

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

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/microcrystalline-cellulose-cellulose-gel.json