What is Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate used for in food?

It is listed as an acidity regulator, a stabiliser and a sequestrant — the role Canada assigns it. This page shows every function each regulator records, with the citation for each.

Where is Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate permitted?

Of the seven regulators this site reads, Canada permits it. Each permission is for named foods at named levels, not a blanket one; the table on this page gives them with citations.

Is Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate vegan?

Yes. Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate is not derived from animals, and is suitable for vegetarians. This page says what it is made from and how.

Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate

Listed as an acidity regulator, a stabiliser and a sequestrant by Canada.

Listed as acidity regulators (CA) · stabilisers (CA) · sequestrants (CA) · starch-modifying agents (CA)

Canada: Acidity regulator — Health Canada, List of Permitted Acidity Regulators and Acid-Reacting Materials (List 10)
Canada: Stabilizing agent — Health Canada, List of Permitted Emulsifying, Gelling, Stabilizing or Thickening Agents (List 4)
Canada: Sequestering agent — Health Canada, List of Permitted Sequestering Agents (List 12)
Canada: Starch-modifying agent — Health Canada, List of Permitted Starch-Modifying Agents (List 13)

A mixed sodium and potassium triphosphate, used like the sodium and potassium salts to hold water in meat and fish and to sequester metal ions.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate by jurisdiction. Every jurisdiction this site covers is listed, including those where the substance does not appear.
Jurisdiction	Status	Scope and limits	Citation
Australia and New ZealandFood Standards Australia New Zealand	No listed food uses foundThis site has not matched this substance to any food use on this jurisdiction’s list of authorised food additives. A food additive may be used only in foods that list names. Flavourings, enzymes, processing aids and added nutrients are regulated separately and do not appear on it.
CanadaHealth Canada	Permitted, with conditions	no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice) 13 permitted uses Show every permitted use 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: Stabilizing agent. Limit: If used singly, the amount not to exceed 1,500 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic. If used in any combination with other phosphate salts, the total combined amount not to exceed 4,000 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic, provided that the amount of sodium potassium tripolyphosphate does not exceed 1 500 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0122, NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Emulsifying, Gelling, Stabilizing or Thickening Agents (List 4), item S.14 In: Frozen clams; Frozen cooked shrimp; Frozen crab; Frozen fish fillets; Frozen lobster; Frozen minced fish; Frozen shrimp; Frozen squid. Purpose: To reduce processing losses and to reduce thaw drip. Limit: Total amount of added phosphate not to exceed 5,000 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Food Additives with Other Purposes of Use (List 8), item S.21 In: Unstandardized foods. Purpose: Acidity regulator. Limit: Good Manufacturing Practice. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Acidity Regulators and Acid-Reacting Materials (List 10), item S.20 In: Canned crustaceans; Canned fish; Canned molluscs; Other canned marine invertebrates. Purpose: Sequestering agent. Limit: Total amount of added phosphate not to exceed 5,000 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Sequestering Agents (List 12), item S.7(a) In: Meat tenderizers. Purpose: Sequestering agent. Limit: Good Manufacturing Practice. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Sequestering Agents (List 12), item S.7(b) In: Pork jowls; Salt beef; Salt pork; Side bacon; Wiltshire bacon. Purpose: Sequestering agent. Limit: Total amount of added phosphate not to exceed 5,000 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Sequestering Agents (List 12), item S.7(c) In: Prepared meat or prepared meat by-product for which a minimum total protein content or a minimum meat protein content is set out in Division 14 of Part B of the Food and Drug Regulations; Prepared poultry meat or prepared poultry meat by-product for which a minimum total protein content or a minimum meat protein requirement is set out in Division 22 of Part B of the Food and Drug Regulations. Purpose: Sequestering agent. Limit: Total amount of added phosphate not to exceed 5,000 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Sequestering Agents (List 12), item S.7(d) In: Pumping pickle or cover pickle used in the curing of poultry or poultry meat. Purpose: Sequestering agent. Limit: Good Manufacturing Practice. Total amount of added phosphate in the cured poultry or cured poultry meat not to exceed 5,000 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic. The solid cut poultry meat must comply with the meat protein content requirements in section B.22.012 of the Food and Drug Regulations. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Sequestering Agents (List 12), item S.7(e) In: Pumping pickle used in the curing of beef, lamb or pork cuts, except pork jowls, salt beef, salt pork, side bacon and Wiltshire bacon. Purpose: Sequestering agent. Limit: Good Manufacturing Practice. Total amount of added phosphate in the cured beef, lamb or pork cut not to exceed 5,000 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic. The solid cut meat must comply with the meat protein content requirements in section B.14.021 of the Food and Drug Regulations. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Sequestering Agents (List 12), item S.7(f) In: Solid cut meat, except pork jowls, salt beef, salt pork, side bacon and Wiltshire bacon. Purpose: Sequestering agent. Limit: Total amount of added phosphate not to exceed 5,000 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic. The solid cut meat must comply with the meat protein content requirements in section B.14.021 of the Food and Drug Regulations. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Sequestering Agents (List 12), item S.7(g) In: Solid cut poultry meat. Purpose: Sequestering agent. Limit: Total amount of added phosphate not to exceed 5,000 ppm, calculated as sodium phosphate, dibasic. The solid cut poultry meat must comply with the meat protein content requirements in section B.22.012 of the Food and Drug Regulations. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Sequestering Agents (List 12), item S.7(h) In: Unstandardized foods. Purpose: Sequestering agent. Limit: Good Manufacturing Practice. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Sequestering Agents (List 12), item S.7(i) In: Starch used in the manufacture of modified starch. Purpose: Starch-modifying agent. Limit: Total residual phosphate not to exceed 4,000 ppm, calculated as phosphorus. Amendment notices: NOM/ADM-0048. — Health Canada, List of Permitted Starch-Modifying Agents (List 13), item S.7	Health Canadaand 12 further provisionsretrieved 2026-10-17
European UnionEuropean Commission / EFSA	No listed food uses foundThis site has not matched this substance to any food use on this jurisdiction’s list of authorised food additives. A food additive may be used only in foods that list names. Flavourings, enzymes, processing aids and added nutrients are regulated separately and do not appear on it.
Great BritainFood Standards Agency / Food Standards Scotland	No listed food uses foundThis site has not matched this substance to any food use on this jurisdiction’s list of authorised food additives. A food additive may be used only in foods that list names. Flavourings, enzymes, processing aids and added nutrients are regulated separately and do not appear on it.
JapanConsumer Affairs Agency	No 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 Safety	No 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 Administration	Not listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited.
Codex AlimentariusCodex Alimentarius Commission / JECFA	Not 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.

Canada	—	5 GMP, 8 no quantity stated

No regulator sets a figure for Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate. 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

Made by heating a mixture of sodium and potassium orthophosphates until three phosphate units condense into a chain.

Vegan
Vegetarian

Compare other additives on the dietary indexes.

Every name it appears under

1 recorded name. A label may use any of them.

Other names

Sodium Potassium Tripolyphosphate

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 rather than machine-read, and none has been written for this substance yet.

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 Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate?: A mixed sodium and potassium triphosphate, used like the sodium and potassium salts to hold water in meat and fish and to sequester metal ions.
What is Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate used for in food?: It is listed as an acidity regulator, a stabiliser and a sequestrant — the role Canada assigns it. This page shows every function each regulator records, with the citation for each.
Where is Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate permitted?: Of the seven regulators this site reads, Canada permits it. Each permission is for named foods at named levels, not a blanket one; the table on this page gives them with citations.
Is Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate vegan?: Yes. Sodium potassium tripolyphosphate is not derived from animals, and is suitable for vegetarians. This page says what it is made from and how.

Sources for this page

ca retrieved 2026-10-17

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.

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