Processed eucheuma seaweed (PES)

E number E407aINS 407a

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

Processed Eucheuma seaweed is a less refined relative of carrageenan, made by washing the seaweed with alkali rather than extracting the polysaccharide out of it. It is used in dairy products and processed meats.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Processed eucheuma seaweed (PES) by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
JurisdictionStatusScope and limitsCitation
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

21 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
  • 01.2.2 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
  • 04.2.2.7 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
  • 09.2.4.2 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
  • 11.4 Other sugars and syrups (e.g. xylose, maple syrup, sugar toppings) — 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 407aand 21 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Made by treating Eucheuma seaweed with alkali and washing it, leaving the cellulose of the seaweed in place. That retained cellulose is what distinguishes it from carrageenan, and why it has its own listing.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E407a

INS number

  • 407a

Other names

  • E 407a
  • Processed euchema seaweed
  • PROCESSED EUCHEUMA SEAWEED (PES)

Hazard reference values

Values set by assessing bodies. A body that has not set a value is not listed here.
TypeValuePopulationAssessed byOpinion
ADI75 mg/kg bw/dayconsumersEFSA ANS2018

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/processed-eucheuma-seaweed-pes.json