E-numbers / Thickeners & emulsifiers / E492
also: SPAN 65
A plant-derived emulsifier that stops fats and water separating in chocolate, sweets and coatings.
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Coconut (27%), Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Egg White, Potato Starch, Dextrose, Rice Flour, Palm Kernel Fat, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder (1.5%), Palm Fat, Stabiliser: Sorbitan Tristearate, Emulsifier: Soya Lecithin
Sorbitan tristearate is made by joining sorbitol, a sweetener made from glucose, to three molecules of stearic acid, a fat found in animal fat and in plant fats such as shea and cocoa butter.
60
of the 43,325 UK supermarket foods we checked declare E492 in their ingredients
That is 0.1%, counted by its code or its name.
Counted by NutraSafe from UK supermarket ingredient lists, September 2026. How we counted
Sorbitan tristearate is made by joining sorbitol, a sweetener made from glucose, to three molecules of stearic acid, a fat found in animal fat and in plant fats such as shea and cocoa butter. It is one of five closely related additives, E491 to E495, approved in the UK and EU. It is an emulsifier, which means it stops fat and water separating.
One end of its molecule is drawn to water and the other to fat, so it sits where the two meet and keeps them mixed. In chocolate it also stops bloom, the white streaks that appear when cocoa butter rises to the surface and sets again. It is often used with polysorbates (E432 to E436) for this.
Chocolate and chocolate-flavoured coatings, sweets, cake icing and glazes, coffee whiteners, plant-based cream, and fat-based fillings. Labels call it sorbitan tristearate or E492, often written as emulsifier (E492).
European reviewers looked at the sorbitan esters, E491 to E495, together. None damaged DNA in standard lab tests. They set a shared daily limit of 10mg per kg of body weight. Their estimates of what people eat, including children who eat the most, did not go over it at permitted use.
Sorbitan esters did not damage DNA in a set of lab and animal tests. Reviewers set a shared daily limit of 10mg per kg of body weight.
Estimated intake of sorbitan esters in Europe stayed under the shared daily limit, even for children who eat the most, when foods held the most the law allows.
The body absorbs little of it whole. Digestive enzymes split part of it into sorbitol and stearic acid, both ordinary parts of the diet. The rest passes through mostly unabsorbed. At the amounts used in food, studies found no build-up in the body.
Animals fed high doses, far above what people eat from permitted uses, showed no harm to organs or body weight.
Daily limit. 10mg per kg of body weight a day, about 700mg for a 70kg adult, shared with E491 to E495.
No group is advised to avoid it on health grounds. Vegans should know the stearic acid used to make it may come from animal fat, though plant versions exist too, and the label will not say which. Look for sorbitan tristearate or E492 in the ingredients.
Sorbitan tristearate belongs to a group of emulsifiers that has been in regulated use for decades and was formally reviewed again in 2015 with no new restrictions. The animal studies used to set its limit used doses many times higher than anyone eats. It has no cancer classification, no ban in the UK or EU, and no published link to hormone disruption, hyperactivity or allergy. It turns up on watch lists because of processing, not because of harm: emulsifiers are one of the markers that put a product in the ultra-processed group, which our UPF checker names on a scanned pack.
No. E492 is approved in England, Scotland and Wales, carried over from EU additive law.
Not always. Sorbitan tristearate is made from stearic acid, which can come from animal fat (tallow) or plant oil. Labels do not have to say which, so ask the maker if it matters to you.
Mostly chocolate and chocolate coatings, sweets, cake icing and glazes, coffee whiteners and plant-based cream. Labels call it sorbitan tristearate or emulsifier (E492).
The sorbitan esters, E491 to E495, share the same sorbitol base but carry different fats. E491 (sorbitan monostearate) carries one stearic acid, and E492 carries three. More fat makes E492 mix better with fat than with water, which suits stopping bloom in chocolate. They share one daily limit.
Last reviewed: 20 June 2026
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