Sodium carbonate

E number E500INS 500(i)CAS 497-19-8

Used as an acidity regulator — Codex also lists it as anticaking agent, emulsifying salt, raising agent, stabilizer, thickener.

Sodium carbonate, or soda ash, is a strongly alkaline acidity regulator used in noodles, cocoa processing and as a processing aid. It is what gives ramen noodles their springy texture.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Sodium carbonate 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 184.1742retrieved 2026-09-07
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFAPermitted, with conditions

20 food categories

highest permitted level 10,000 mg/kg

Show every food category
  • 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
  • 02.2.1 Butter — 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
  • 06.2.2 Starches — GMP
  • 06.4.1 Fresh pastas and noodles and like products — 10,000 mg/kg
  • 06.4.2 Dried pastas and noodles and like products — 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 Cooked and/or 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
  • 12.1.2 Salt substitutes — GMP
  • 12.2.1 Herbs and spices — GMP
  • 13.1.1 Infant formulae — 2,000 mg/kg
  • 13.1.2 Follow-up formulae — GMP
  • 13.1.3 Formulae for special medical purposes for infants — 2,000 mg/kg
  • 13.2 Complementary foods for infants and young children — 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 500(i)and 20 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Manufactured by the Solvay process or mined as trona and refined.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian
CAS registry number
497-19-8
InChIKey
CDBYLPFSWZWCQE-UHFFFAOYSA-L
PubChem
CID 10340

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E500

INS number

  • 500(i)

CAS registry number

  • 497-19-8
  • 7542-12-3

As it appears in regulation

  • Sodium carbonate

Other names

  • Anhydrous sodium carbonate
  • Bestmade Natural Products Nat Carb
  • Bisodium carbonate
  • BUFFER STANDARD SOLUTION PH 10.01,BAG WI TH 30 ML
  • Calcined soda
  • carbonate sodium
  • Carbonic acid disodium salt
  • Carbonic acid sodium salt
  • Carbonic acid sodium salt (1:2)
  • Caswell N0 752
  • Caswell No. 752
  • CCRIS 7319
  • CNa2O3
  • Crystol carbonate
  • Disodium carbonate
  • Disodium carbonate (Na2CO3)
  • Disodium carbonate monohydrate
  • Dried sodium carbonate
  • Dynamar L 13890
  • E 500
  • Eluent 3: 0.5M Na2CO3
  • EPA Pesticide Chemical Code 073506
  • Getrocknetes natriumkcarbonat
  • HSDB 5018
  • INS NO.500(I)
  • INS-500(I)
  • Light Ash
  • Natrii carbonas monohydricus
  • Natrium Carbonicum Calcinatum
  • Natrium carbonicum monohydricum
  • Natrium Carbonicum Siccatum
  • Natriumkarbonat
  • Natrum carbonicum
  • Sal soda
  • Snowlite I
  • Soda
  • Soda (van)
  • Soda Ash
  • Soda Ash Light 4P
  • Soda, calcined
  • Soda-ash
  • sodium cabonate
  • Sodium carbonat
  • SODIUM CARBONATE
  • Sodium carbonate (2:1)
  • Sodium carbonate (Na2(CO3))
  • Sodium carbonate (NF)
  • sodium carbonate sodium
  • SODIUM CARBONATE, ACS
  • Sodium carbonate, anhydrous
  • Sodium Carbonate, Anhydrous ASTM D458
  • Sodium Carbonate, Anhydrous GE Materials D4D5
  • Sodium carbonates
  • Sodium salt of carbonic acid
  • sodium-carbonate
  • sodiumcarbonate
  • Solvay soda
  • Suprapur 6395
  • V Soda
  • Washing soda

Systematic names

  • disodium;carbonate

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/sodium-carbonate.json