Pectins

E number E440INS 440CAS 56645-02-4

Used as an emulsifier — Codex also lists it as gelling, agent, glazing agent, stabilizer, thickener.

Pectin is the gelling agent that sets jam, extracted from fruit. It is one of the few additives most people have used deliberately in their own kitchen.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Pectins 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 184.1588retrieved 2026-09-07
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

34 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
  • 04.1.1.2 Surface-treated fresh fruit — 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
  • 06.4.1 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
  • 09.2.4.3 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
  • 13.1.2 Follow-up formulae — 10,000 mg/kg
  • 13.1.3 Formulae for special medical purposes for infants — 2,000 mg/kg
  • 13.2 Complementary foods for infants and young children — 10,000 mg/kg
  • 14.1.2.1 Fruit juice — GMP
  • 14.1.2.2 Vegetable juice — GMP
  • 14.1.2.3 Concentrates for fruit juice — GMP
  • 14.1.2.4 Concentrates for vegetable juice — GMP
  • 14.1.3.1 Fruit nectar — GMP
  • 14.1.3.2 Vegetable nectar — GMP
  • 14.1.3.3 Concentrates for fruit nectar — GMP
  • 14.1.3.4 Concentrates for vegetable nectar — 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 440and 34 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Extracted with hot acid from citrus peel or apple pomace, both by-products of juice production, then precipitated and dried. High-methoxyl pectin needs sugar and acid to set; low-methoxyl pectin sets with calcium instead.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian
CAS registry number
56645-02-4
InChIKey
AEMOLEFTQBMNLQ-DTEWXJGMSA-N
PubChem
CID 441476

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E440

INS number

  • 440

CAS registry number

  • 56645-02-4
  • 9000-69-5

As it appears in regulation

  • Pectins

Other names

  • (2S,3R,4S,5R,6R)-3,4,5,6-tetrahydroxyoxane-2-carboxylic acid
  • Amidated pectin
  • berry breezer throat drop
  • Berry Breezer Throat Drops
  • Best Health Berry Soothers Throat Drops
  • Breezers
  • Breezers Cool Berry
  • Breezers Creamy Strawberry
  • burts bees throat soothing
  • Cold Sore Canker Sore Patch
  • Colyer pectin
  • E 440(i)
  • E 440(ii)
  • Equate Sore Throat Pops
  • Genu Pectin L 200
  • Halls Breezers Sugar Free Cool Berry
  • INS NO.440
  • INS-440
  • Leader Throat Soothing Drops Creamy Strawberry
  • Lolleez Birthday Cake
  • Lolleez Birthday Cake-Conventional
  • Lolleez Mixed Berry
  • Lolleez Mixed Berry Box
  • Lolleez Orange Mango
  • Lolleez Strawberry
  • Lolleez Variety Pack
  • Lolleez Variety Pack 21
  • Lolleez Variety Pack Box
  • Lolleez Watermelon
  • Lozenge
  • Ludens Assorted Flavors
  • Ludens Berry Assortment Throat Drops
  • Ludens Blue Raspberry Throat Drops
  • Ludens Green Apple Throat Drops
  • Ludens Honey Lemon
  • Ludens Strawberry Banana Throat Drops
  • LUDENS SUGAR FREE WILD CHERRY THROAT
  • Ludens Watermelon Throat Drops
  • Ludens Wild Cherry Throat Drops
  • Ludens Wild Honey Throat Drops
  • Marpee NL
  • Marpee OM
  • Methoxy Pectin
  • methoxylpectin
  • Methyl pectin
  • Methyl pectinate
  • Mexpectin
  • PECT
  • Pectin
  • Pectin, Methoxy
  • Pectinate
  • Pectinate, Calcium
  • Pectinate, Zinc
  • Pectins
  • Sootheez Berry Lemonade
  • Sootheez Birthday Cake
  • Sootheez Strawberry Lemonade
  • Sootheez Watermelon Mint
  • Sundown Honey Soothers Lollipops
  • Throat Balm Caramel Pectin
  • Throat Coat
  • Throat Coat Lemon Ginger Echinacea
  • Throat Soothing Creamy Strawberry

Systematic names

  • beta-D-galactopyranuronic acid

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/pectins.json