Potassium chloride

E number E508INS 508CAS 7447-40-7

Used as a thickener — Codex also lists it as firming agent, flavour, enhancer, stabilizer.

Potassium chloride is the main substitute for ordinary salt in reduced-sodium foods. It tastes salty but carries a metallic bitterness, which is why it is usually blended with sodium chloride rather than replacing it outright.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Potassium 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 184.1622retrieved 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
  • 01.4.1 Pasteurized cream (plain) — GMP
  • 01.4.2 Sterilized and UHT creams, whipping and whipped creams, and reduced fat creams (plain) — GMP
  • 01.8.2 Dried whey and whey products, excluding whey cheeses — 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
  • 06.4.2 Dried pastas and noodles and like products — GMP
  • 08.1.1 Fresh meat, poultry and game, whole pieces or cuts — 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
  • 09.2.5 Smoked, dried, fermented, and/or salted fish and fish products, including molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms — 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 508and 14 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Mined as sylvite or recovered from brines, then purified.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian
CAS registry number
7447-40-7
InChIKey
WCUXLLCKKVVCTQ-UHFFFAOYSA-M
PubChem
CID 4873

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E508

INS number

  • 508

CAS registry number

  • 7447-40-7

As it appears in regulation

  • Potassium chloride

Other names

  • Acronitol
  • Celeka
  • Chloride of potash
  • Chloropotassuril
  • Chlorvescent
  • Durekal
  • Durules
  • E 508
  • Enpott
  • Enseal
  • K-Contin
  • K-Lease
  • K-Lor
  • K-Tab
  • Kadalex
  • Kalcorid
  • Kaleorid
  • Kaliduron
  • Kaliglutol
  • Kalilente
  • Kalinorm
  • Kaliolite
  • Kalipor
  • Kalipoz
  • Kalitabs
  • Kalitrans Retard
  • Kalium Duriles
  • Kalium Durules
  • Kalium Retard
  • Kaochlor
  • Kaon Cl
  • Kaon-Cl
  • Kato
  • Kay Ciel
  • Keylyte
  • Klor-Con
  • Kloren
  • Klorvess
  • Klotrix
  • Micro-K
  • Miopotasio
  • Monopotassium chloride
  • Muriate of potash
  • Natural sylvite
  • Neobakasal
  • Peter-kal
  • Pfiklor
  • Potasion
  • Potasol
  • Potassium chloride
  • Potassium monochloride
  • Potassium muriate
  • Potavescent
  • Rekawan
  • Rekawan Retard
  • Repone K
  • Slow-K
  • Steropotassium
  • Sylvine
  • Sylvite
  • Ten-K

Systematic names

  • potassium chloride

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/potassium-chloride.json