Thaumatin

E number E957INS 957CAS 53850-34-3

Used as a sweetener — Codex also lists it as flavour enhancer.

Thaumatin is a sweet-tasting protein from a West African fruit, thousands of times as sweet as sugar by weight. It is used as much for its ability to enhance and prolong other flavours as for sweetness itself.

Where it is and isn’t permitted

Status of Thaumatin 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

4 food categories

no numerical limit (good manufacturing practice)

Show every food category
  • 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
  • 11.4 Other sugars and syrups (e.g. xylose, maple syrup, sugar toppings) — 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 957and 4 further provisionsretrieved 2026-09-07

What it is made from

Extracted with water from the arils of the katemfe fruit, Thaumatococcus daniellii. Because it is a protein it is digested like any other, and it can also be produced by fermentation in engineered microorganisms.

  • Vegan
  • Vegetarian
CAS registry number
53850-34-3

Every name it appears under

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

E number

  • E957

INS number

  • 957

CAS registry number

  • 53850-34-3

Other names

  • E 957
  • THAUMATIN

Systematic names

  • Thaumatins, proteins

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

  • 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/thaumatin.json