Gold 金

In Japan

• Gold itself; another name is “金箔” (gold leaf). Its purposes in the list of items in the List of Existing Food Additives are colorant and processing agent.
• Under the standard for use for colorants (excluding chemically synthesized products), it cannot be used in kelp (konbu) products, meat, fresh fish and shellfish, tea, beans, vegetables, or wakame seaweed products. For laver (nori) products, gold is excluded from the prohibition.
• When used for coloring, the purpose name must be written alongside. Because “金” (gold) and “金箔” (gold leaf) do not contain the character 色 (color), it is written as “着色料（金箔）” (colorant (gold leaf)).

Japan's standards for use

• Standard for colorants (excluding chemically synthesized products): must not be used in kelp (konbu) products, meat, fresh fish and shellfish (including whale meat), tea, laver (nori) products, beans, vegetables, and wakame seaweed products (excluding gold used in laver (nori) products)

This is a summary of the standards for use. See the source list for the exact conditions.

In the EU

• It is on the EU list of food additives (Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, Annex II) as E175.
• In the EU, it can be used only in the outer coating of confectionery, chocolate decorations, and liqueurs.

Sources

• List of Existing Food Additives — Japan Food Chemical Research Foundation (Japanese)
• Standards for use and storage of each additive — Japan Food Chemical Research Foundation (Japanese)
• EU food additive database (Japanese translation) — MAFF (Japanese)
• Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 on food additives — EUR-Lex
• 日本食品化学研究振興財団「既存添加物名簿収載品目リスト」（令和7年8月25日現在） (Japanese)
• 消費者庁「食品表示基準について」別添 添加物関係（簡略名・用途名併記・一括名・栄養強化の範囲） (Japanese)
• 食品表示基準（平成27年内閣府令第10号）第3条（加工助剤の定義、「色」の文字を含む場合の用途名の省略）（e-Gov 法令検索） (Japanese)

Checked 2026-10-02. Rules and evaluations change over time. This page is a translation of our Japanese page; if they differ, the Japanese page is the reference.