Revely

Additive

Potassium benzoate (E212)

E212 is in the E200s, the range used for preservatives. Here’s what it goes by on a label, and what regulators and scientists have said about it.

Sources checked September 26, 2026

Names on a label

Labels outside Europe often print the number on its own, without the E.

What it’s used for

The FDA lists these uses in food: antimicrobial agent.1

What regulators and scientists say

An acceptable daily intake is, in EFSA’s words, “an estimate of the amount of a substance in food or drinking water that can be consumed daily over a lifetime without presenting an appreciable risk to health.”3

Sources

  1. US Food and Drug Administration. Substances Added to Food inventory.
  2. EFSA. Scientific Opinion on the re-evaluation of benzoic acid (E 210), sodium benzoate (E 211), potassium benzoate (E 212) and calcium benzoate (E 213) as food additives, 2016.
  3. European Food Safety Authority. Glossary: acceptable daily intake.

Records as held by Revely on September 26, 2026. Each links to its source.