The International Numbering System for Food Additives (INS) is an international naming system for

food additive Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance taste, appearance, or other sensory qualities. Some additives, such as vinegar ( pickling), salt ( salting), smoke ( smoking) and sugar ( crystallization), have been used f ...

s, aimed at providing a short designation of what may be a lengthy actual name."Class Names and the International Numbering System for Food Additives"
CAC/GL 36-1989
in 1989, Revision 2008. Last amendment 2011. Published by Codex Alimentarius It is defined by

Codex Alimentarius The is a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines, and other recommendations published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations relating to f ...

, the international food standards organisation of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

(WHO) and

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...

(FAO) of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

(UN). The information is published in the document ''Class Names and the International Numbering System for Food Additives'', first published in 1989, with revisions in 2008 and 2011. The INS is an open list, "subject to the inclusion of additional additives or removal of existing ones on an ongoing basis".

Numbering system

INS numbers consist of three or four digits, optionally followed by an alphabetical suffix to further characterize individual additives. On packaging in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(EU), approved food additives are written with a prefix of ''E''. An additive that appears in the INS does not automatically have a corresponding

E number E numbers, short for Europe numbers, are codes for substances used as food additives, including those found naturally in many foods, such as vitamin C, for use within the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA). Commonly ...

. INS numbers are assigned by the committee to identify each food additive. INS numbers generally correspond to E numbers for the same compound, e.g. INS 102, Tartrazine, is also E102. INS numbers are not unique and, in fact, one number may be assigned to a group of similar compounds.

List of INS numbers

* Except where stated, the list of INS numbers and associated food additives is based on the most recent publication of the Codex Alimentarius, ''Class Names and the International Numbering System for Food Additives'', first published in 1989, with revisions in 2008 and 2011. * E number and American approval flags are derived from other sources. * In the table below, food additives approved for the EU are listed with an 'E',Current EU approved additives and their E Numbers
/ref> and those approved for Australia and New Zealand with an 'A'. and for the US with a U, even though the US does not use the INS numbering system.

Numbering system

List of INS numbers

See also

References

Further reading