Estimated intake of benzoic and sorbic acid in Denmark

Torben Leth (1) , Tue Christensen (2) , Ib Krog Larsen (3)

1 Food Chemistry
2 Nutrition
3 Chemical analysis

The monitoring of food additives and recent dietary surveys carried out in Denmark have earlier been used to estimate the intake of sweeteners and nitrite in relation to ADI values. The ubiquitous use of the preservatives benzoic and sorbic acid raises the question of the magnitude of the intake of these preservatives in relation to ADI values, which is explored in the present investigation. The content of benzoic and sorbic acid in all food groups, where they are allowed, has been monitored in Denmark 17 times from 2001 to 2006 with a total of 1526 samples. Transgressions of maximum limits, illegal use or declaration faults have been found in about 3% of the samples. From repeated investigations on fat based foods (salads and dressings), marmalade and stewed fruit it can be concluded that the amounts used by the industry have been relatively stable through the whole period, although limited data for marmalade show some variation. Most foods in the categories soft drinks, dressing, fat based salads, pickled herrings and marmalade contain benzoic and sorbic acid, and sliced bread contain in some cases also sorbic acid. The median daily intake and intake distribution of benzoic and sorbic acid have been calculated with data from the Danish National Survey of Dietary Habits and Physical Activity (age: 4-75 years) conducted in 2000-04 with 5785 participants.The median intakes of both benzoic acid and sorbic acid are well below the acceptable daily intake (ADI) values of 0-5 mg/kg bw/day and 0-25 mg/kg bw/day for benzoic and sorbic acid respectively. However, the 90th percentile based on the average of the samples with a content of benzoic acid is higher than the ADI value for both men and women with the highest value of 16 mg/kg bw/day for both boys and girls in the age group 4-6 year old.. Based on the average of all the samples the 95th percentile is over the ADI value for men up to 34 years and for women up to 24 years and the 90th percentile for men up to 18 years and for women up to 10 years. Soft drinks, salads and dressing are the main contributors to the benzoic acid intake.The sorbic acid intake based on the average of all samples is well below the ADI value. However, for the intake based on the average of samples with content the 95th percentile exceeds the ADI . This is caused by the dominating contribution to the intake of sorbic acid from sliced bread, but since only 7 out of 42 samples have added sorbic acid, the calculation based on the average of samples with content will exaggerate the intake. With the built in safety factor of 100 in the ADI values and judging from the literature the high intakes of benzoic acid should not cause any concern for ill effects. However, there must be reason to reconsider the maximum limits especially for benzoic acid in soft drinks, dressing and salads and for sorbic acid in sliced bread.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Torben Leth, Tue Christensen, Ib Krog Larsen. Estimated intake of benzoic and sorbic acid in Denmark. Food Additives and Contaminants, 2010, 27 (06), pp.783-792. ⟨10.1080/19440041003598606⟩. ⟨hal-00593893⟩