Silver

E number E174CAS 7440-22-4

Listed as a colour by Canada and the EU.

Listed as colours (CA, EU)
Chemical structure of Silver, from PubChem compound 23954
Structure from PubChem CID 23954 (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.

Silver leaf and powder are permitted in the EU as a decoration: on the outside of confectionery, on chocolates, and in liqueurs. In South Asian sweets the same material is known as vark.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Silver 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

2 food categories

no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice)

Show every food category
  • 14.2.5 Spirits and liqueurs — GMP
  • 5 Confectionery — GMP
Food Standards Code, Schedule 15, S15—5and 1 further provisionretrieved 2026-10-17
CanadaHealth CanadaPermitted

no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice)

3 permitted uses

Show every permitted use
  • In: Apple and (naming the fruit or fruits) jam; Bread; Butter; Concentrated (naming the fruit) juice, except frozen concentrated orange juice; Fig marmalade with pectin; Fish roe (caviar); Ice cream mix; Ice milk mix; Icing sugar; (Naming the fruit or fruits) jam with pectin; (Naming the fruit or fruits) jelly with pectin; Liqueur; Lobster paste; (Naming the flavour) milk; (Naming the flavour) partly skimmed milk; (Naming the flavour) partly skimmed milk with added milk solids; (Naming the flavour) skim milk; (Naming the flavour) skim milk with added milk solids; Pickles and relishes; Pineapple marmalade with pectin; Rhubarb and (naming the fruit or fruits) jam; Sherbet; Smoked fish; Tomato catsup. Purpose: Food colour. Limit: Good Manufacturing Practice. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Food Colours (List 3), item S.3(a)
  • In: Blend of prepared fish and prepared meat as set out in paragraph 18.1.3(g) of Volume 18 of the Food Compositional Standards Document. Purpose: Food colour. Limit: Good Manufacturing Practice. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0122. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Food Colours (List 3), item S.3(b)
  • In: Unstandardized foods. Purpose: Food colour. Limit: Good Manufacturing Practice. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Food Colours (List 3), item S.3(c)
Health Canada, List of Permitted Food Colours (List 3)and 2 further provisionsretrieved 2026-10-17
European UnionEuropean Commission / EFSAPermitted, with conditions

3 food categories

Show every food category
  • 14.2.6 Spirit drinks as defined in Regulation (EU) 2019/787 — quantum satisquantum satis. only liqueurs.
  • 5.2 Other confectionery including breath freshening micro-sweets — quantum satisquantum satis. only external coating of confectionery.
  • 5.4 Decorations, coatings and fillings, except fruit-based fillings covered by category 4.2.4 — quantum satisquantum satis. only decoration of chocolates.
Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, Annex IIand 2 further provisionsretrieved 2026-10-18
Great BritainFood Standards Agency / Food Standards ScotlandPermitted, with conditions

3 food categories

Show every food category
  • 14.2.6 Spirit drinks as defined in Regulation (EC) No 110/2008 — quantum satisquantum satis. only liqueurs.
  • 5.2 Other confectionery including breath refreshening microsweets — quantum satisquantum satis. only external coating of confectionery.
  • 5.4 Decorations, coatings and fillings, except fruit based fillings covered by category 4.2.4 — quantum satisquantum satis. only decoration of chocolates.
Assimilated Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008and 2 further provisionsretrieved 2026-10-18
JapanConsumer Affairs AgencyNo listing matchedThis site imports only Japan’s list of designated additives (Appended Table 1 to the Regulations for Enforcement of the Food Sanitation Act), matched by English name. Existing additives, natural flavouring agents and ordinary foods used as additives are permitted outside that list and are not imported, so an empty row does not show that Japan does not permit the substance.
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 / JECFANot listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited.

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—2 GMP
Canada—3 GMP
European Union—3 quantum satis
Great Britain—3 quantum satis

No regulator sets a figure for Silver. That is not an absence of control: where the listing says quantum satis or good manufacturing practice, the quantity is limited to what the effect requires.

What it is made from

Pure silver beaten into extremely thin leaf or milled into powder. Traditional vark was beaten between layers of animal hide, which modern production has largely replaced with other methods; the route is not declared.

  • Vegan status depends on the source
  • Vegetarian status depends on the source
  • May raise a halal question
  • May raise a kosher question

This is not an omission. What this additive is made from is not fixed — depending on the manufacturer it may be plant, animal or microbial in origin, nobody is required to say which, and the same product can change source between production runs. Ask the manufacturer if it matters to you; a label cannot answer it.

Compare other additives on the dietary indexes.

CAS registry number
7440-22-4
InChIKey
BQCADISMDOOEFD-UHFFFAOYSA-N
PubChem
CID 23954

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 174 Silver

Synonyms: Argentum

Assay, identification and purity criteria

Description and assay

Colour Index No
77820
Einecs
231-131-3
Chemical name
Silver
Chemical formula
Ag
Atomic weight
107,87
Assay
Content not less than 99,5 % Ag
Description
Silver-coloured powder or tiny sheets

Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012, Annex, E 174

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E174

CAS registry number

  • 7440-22-4

As it appears in regulation

  • Silver

Other names

  • Ag
  • Algaedyn
  • argent
  • Argentum
  • Argentum 0.4
  • Argentum 12X
  • Argentum 21X
  • Argentum 30
  • Argentum 5
  • Argentum 6
  • Argentum 6X
  • Argentum 8
  • Argentum Metalicum
  • Argentum Metallicaum
  • Argentum metallicum
  • Argentum Metallucum
  • Argentyn 23
  • Astroflake 5
  • Aurum
  • Ave Silvergen
  • Carey Lea silver
  • Colloidal silver
  • D 25 (metal)
  • Degussa 67
  • Degussa 80
  • Dotite XA 208
  • E 174
  • EmuAid
  • emuaidMAX
  • EPA Pesticide Chemical Code 072501
  • G SOL Sanitizing
  • Germproof
  • INS NO.174
  • INS-174
  • Jelcon SH 1
  • KS (metal)
  • Metz 25B
  • Metz 3000-1
  • Nanosilver
  • Noble S Plus
  • PetSilver Wound 2
  • PetSilver Wound 4
  • PetSilver Wound 8
  • Pigment Metal 3
  • Shell silver
  • Silber
  • Silflake 135
  • Silpowder 130
  • SilvaPlex Throat
  • SilvaPlex Wound
  • SilvaPlex Wound Gel
  • SILVER
  • Silver (Ag)
  • Silver (e 174)
  • Silver atom
  • silver colloid
  • silver ion water
  • Silver metal
  • Silver Wound Gel
  • silver(0)
  • Silver, colloidal
  • Sovereign Silver
  • TCG 7r
  • Wound Gel

Systematic names

  • silver

The EU re-evaluation programme

Every additive authorised in the EU before 20 January 2009 was put back through EFSA by Commission Regulation (EU) No 257/2010, and this one is named in it. What the Regulation required is below; whether the opinion has since been published is not something this site records.

  • To be evaluated by 31 December 2015. Named in Annex II, Part I, point 3 as “Silver”, among the additives given priority within its class.

Hazard reference values

Values set by assessing bodies. A body that has not set a value is not listed here.
TypeValuePopulationAssessed byOpinion
ADInot allocatedconsumersEFSA FAF2025

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 2025

    In a follow-up, the FAF Panel concluded that the submitted characterisation, genotoxicity and subchronic toxicity data for silver (E 174) were inadequate, that the additive requires assessment at the nanoscale, and that it could not conclude on the safety of silver as a food additive.

    Source document

  2. EFSA 2016

    The ANS Panel concluded that the information was insufficient to assess the safety of silver (E 174), citing a lack of toxicity data on the additive, unknown particle size distribution and possible release of silver ions. It recommended adding particle size and nanoscale fraction to the specifications and said further data would be required.

    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 174?
E 174 is Silver. Silver leaf and powder are permitted in the EU as a decoration: on the outside of confectionery, on chocolates, and in liqueurs. In South Asian sweets the same material is known as vark.
What is Silver used for in food?
It is listed as a colour — the role Canada and the EU assign it. This page shows every function each regulator records, with the citation for each.
Where is Silver permitted?
Of the seven regulators this site reads, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, the EU and Great Britain 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 Silver vegan?
It depends on the source, and a label will not tell you. Silver can be made from plant or animal material, manufacturers are not obliged to say which, and the same product can change between production runs. Anyone who needs to know has to ask the manufacturer.

Sources for this page

  • anz retrieved 2026-10-17
  • ca retrieved 2026-10-17
  • eu retrieved 2026-10-18
  • gb retrieved 2026-10-18
  • euspecs retrieved 2026-10-18

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

Machine-readable: a JSON record of this additive is given on request —how to ask for access.

Follow changes to Silver:Atom feed — regulatory events, and any change the weekly refresh detects in its provisions.