E913 - Lanolin
What it is and how it is used
Lanolin is the greasy wax that sheep secrete to waterproof their fleece, recovered by scouring raw wool. It is a genuinely useful material — most of the world's production goes into skin creams and nipple balm, and it is the industrial starting point for making vitamin D3, which is synthesised from the cholesterol it contains.
Its food-adjacent use has been as a component of chewing gum base and as a surface glaze. It is not on the Great Britain authorised additives list.
Foods commonly containing it
None in Great Britain under this code. Lanolin-derived cholecalciferol is, separately, the usual source of the vitamin D3 used to fortify foods and supplements — which is why most vitamin D3 is not vegan.
Safety summary
Lanolin (E 913) 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.
The connection worth knowing is the vitamin D one. Cholecalciferol (D3) is manufactured from lanolin cholesterol, so a D3 supplement is normally an animal-derived product even though it contains no lanolin as such; vegan D3 is made from lichen instead, and vegan-suitable products say so. See vitamin D.
Known concerns
Wool-derived, so not vegan or vegetarian. Lanolin allergy is well documented in a small proportion of people, though from skin contact rather than diet.