A raising agent is a substance, or combination of substances, that releases gas and so increases the volume of a dough or a batter. Makers use it in baking and in products that need to rise.
Vietnam regulates additives through a list of permitted additives (Circular 24/2019/TT-BYT, referencing international Codex standards); a substance not on the list is not permitted in Vietnam, and that is the first tier of the Yenzo Scale — see how levels are set.
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Fun fact. For thousands of years, the bubbles that made bread light came from yeast, which gives off carbon dioxide when mixed with flour and water. In the 1800s, people looked for a way to make bread without the hours that yeast takes to work. Earlier bakers used sodium bicarbonate with sour milk or cream of tartar as the acid, but the acidity of milk varied and the supply of cream of tartar was unreliable. Harvard chemist Eben Norton Horsford began working on the problem in 1854 and arrived at a combination of acid phosphate and sodium bicarbonate, later adding a little corn starch to keep it dry until used. He sold the formula as Rumford Baking Powder, which is still sold today. Source: Bubble, bubble — without toil or trouble (Harvard Gazette, Harvard University)
Raising agents are used in doughs or batters that need to rise, as in baking. Each code has its own page with the functions given in Circular 24/2019/TT-BYT; for example sodium carbonates (E500), ammonium carbonates (E503) and glucono delta-lactone (E575) are all listed with the function raising agent.
Labels usually write the group name followed by the INS number in brackets, for example “raising agent (500)”, or the code E500, or the name of the substance (sodium carbonates). A substance may be written in any of these ways.
Yenzo does not rank additives. Some codes of this group that have a page on Yenzo: E341 (calcium phosphates), E450 (diphosphates), E500 (sodium carbonates), E503 (ammonium carbonates), E575 (glucono delta-lactone). All of them are named in Appendix 1 of Circular 24/2019/TT-BYT.
Updated 28 October 2026
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