E912 - Montanic acid esters
What it is and how it is used
Montanic acid esters are derived from montan wax, which is extracted with solvent from lignite — brown coal. It is one of the very few commercial waxes of fossil rather than plant or animal origin, and its properties sit close to carnauba: hard, high-melting and glossy.
Its food-adjacent use is the same as several other hard waxes: a thin coating on the skin of citrus and other fruit to slow water loss and improve appearance in the shop.
Foods commonly containing it
None in Great Britain under this code. Where permitted elsewhere, it is used as a surface treatment on fresh citrus fruit.
Safety summary
Montanic acid esters (E 912) does not appear in the FSA Register of Food Additive Authorisations, the official list of additives authorised for the market in Great Britain, and it is not on the DHSC/FSA list of approved additives and E numbers. On the current GB list it is not an authorised food additive.
No GB or EFSA acceptable daily intake applies to it as a food additive.
For fruit sold in the UK, the authorised coatings are beeswax (E 901), candelilla wax (E 902), carnauba wax (E 903) and shellac (E 904). If you use citrus zest, buying unwaxed or organic fruit — or scrubbing the peel in warm water — is the practical response to any waxing, authorised or not.