Potassium sorbate is the

potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosph ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

sorbic acid Sorbic acid, or 2,4-hexadienoic acid, is a natural organic compound used as a food preservative. It has the chemical formula and the structure . It is a colourless solid that is slightly soluble in water and sublimes readily. It was first isol ...

, chemical formula CH₃CH=CH−CH=CH−CO₂K. It is a white salt that is very soluble in water (58.2% at 20 °C). It is primarily used as a

food preservative Food preservation includes processes that make food more resistant to microorganism growth and slow the oxidation of fats. This slows down the decomposition and rancidification process. Food preservation may also include processes that inhibit ...

( E number 202). Potassium sorbate is effective in a variety of applications including food,

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

, and

personal-care products Personal care or toiletries are consumer products used in personal hygiene, personal grooming or for beautification. Products Personal care includes products as diverse as cleansing pads, colognes, cotton swabs, cotton pads, deodorant, eye line ...

. While sorbic acid occurs naturally in rowan berries, virtually all of the world's supply of sorbic acid, from which potassium sorbate is derived, is manufactured synthetically.

Production

Potassium sorbate is produced industrially by

neutralizing A neutralizing antibody (NAb) is an antibody that defends a cell from a pathogen or infectious particle by neutralizing any effect it has biologically. Neutralization renders the particle no longer infectious or pathogenic. Neutralizing antibod ...

with

potassium hydroxide Potassium hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the formula K OH, and is commonly called caustic potash. Along with sodium hydroxide (NaOH), KOH is a prototypical strong base. It has many industrial and niche applications, most of which exp ...

. The precursor sorbic acid is produced in a two-step process via the condensation of

crotonaldehyde Crotonaldehyde is a chemical compound with the formula CH3CH=CHCHO. The compound is usually sold as a mixture of the ''E''- and ''Z''-isomers, which differ with respect to the relative position of the methyl and formyl groups. The ''E''-isomer ...

and

ketene In organic chemistry, a ketene is an organic compound of the form , where R and R' are two arbitrary monovalent chemical groups (or two separate substitution sites in the same molecule). The name may also refer to the specific compound ethen ...

Uses

Potassium sorbate is used to inhibit

mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...

s and

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...

s in many foods, such as cheese,

yogurt Yogurt (; , from tr, yoğurt, also spelled yoghurt, yogourt or yoghourt) is a food produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yogurt are known as ''yogurt cultures''. Fermentation of sugars in the milk by these bac ...

dried meat Dried meat is a feature of many cuisines around the world. Examples include: *Kulen Slanina Pečenica *Aliya, sun-dried meat from Kenya * Bakkwa or rougan, Chinese salty-sweet dried meat sheets. * Biltong, a cured meat that originated in Sout ...

apple cider Apple cider (also called sweet cider, soft cider, or simply cider) is the name used in the United States and Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples. Though typically referred to simply as "cider" in the U ...

dehydrated fruits In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...

, soft drinks and fruit drinks, and baked goods.Erich Lück, Martin Jager and Nico Raczek "Sorbic Acid" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2000. It is used in the preparation of items such as hotcake syrup and milkshakes served by

fast-food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredient ...

restaurants such as

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

. It can also be found in the ingredients list of many

dried fruit Dried fruit is fruit from which the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to th ...

products. In addition, herbal dietary supplement products generally contain potassium sorbate, which acts to prevent mold and microbes and to increase shelf life. It is used in quantities at which no adverse health effects are known, over short periods of time. Labeling of this preservative on ingredient statements reads as "potassium sorbate" or "E202". Also, it is used in many

to inhibit the development of

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

s for shelf stability. Some manufacturers are using this preservative as a replacement for

paraben Parabens are a class of widely used preservatives in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. Chemically, they are a series of parahydroxybenzoates or esters of parahydroxybenzoic acid (also known as 4-hydroxybenzoic acid). Parabens are effective p ...

s. Tube feeding of potassium sorbate reduces the gastric burden of pathogenic bacteria. Also known as "wine stabilizer", potassium sorbate produces

when added to

. It serves two purposes. When active fermentation has ceased and the wine is racked for the final time after clearing, potassium sorbate renders any surviving yeast incapable of multiplying. Yeast living at that moment can continue fermenting any residual sugar into CO₂ and alcohol, but when they die, no new yeast will be present to cause future fermentation. When a wine is sweetened before bottling, potassium sorbate is used to prevent refermentation when used in conjunction with

potassium metabisulfite Potassium metabisulfite, K2S2O5, also known as potassium pyrosulfite, is a white crystalline powder with a pungent odour. It is mainly used as an antioxidant or chemical sterilant. As a disulfite, it is chemically very similar to sodium metabi ...

. It is primarily used with

sweet wine Dessert wines, sometimes called pudding wines in the United Kingdom, are sweet wines typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal ...

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...

s, and some

hard cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...

s, but may be added to

table wine Table wine (rarely abbreviated TW) is a wine term with two different meanings: a style of wine and a quality level within wine classification. In the United States, the term primarily designates a wine style: an ordinary wine which is not fortifi ...

s, which exhibit difficulty in maintaining clarity after fining. Some

s (notably some ''

Trichoderma ''Trichoderma'' is a genus of fungi in the family Hypocreaceae that is present in all soils, where they are the most prevalent culturable fungi. Many species in this genus can be characterized as opportunistic avirulent plant symbionts. This ref ...

'' and ''

Penicillium ''Penicillium'' () is a genus of ascomycetous fungi that is part of the mycobiome of many species and is of major importance in the natural environment, in food spoilage, and in food and drug production. Some members of the genus produce pe ...

'' strains) and

s are able to detoxify sorbates by decarboxylation, producing

piperylene Piperylene or 1,3-pentadiene is an organic compound with the formula . It is a volatile, flammable hydrocarbon. It is one of the five positional isomers of pentadiene. Reactions and occurrence Piperylene is a typical diene. It forms a sulfo ...

(1,3-pentadiene). The pentadiene manifests as a typical odor of

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

Toxicology

In pure form, potassium sorbate is a skin, eye, and respiratory irritant. Concentrations up to 0.5% are not significant skin irritants. As a food additive, potassium sorbate is used as a preservative in concentrations of 0.025–0.100%, which in a 100 g serving yields an intake of 25–100 mg. In the United States, no more than 0.1% is allowed in fruit butters, jellies, preserves, and related products. Up to 0.4% has been studied in low-salt, naturally-fermented pickles, and when combined with calcium chloride, 0.2% made "good quality pickles." Potassium sorbate has about 74% of sorbic acid's anti-microbial activity. When calculated as sorbic acid, 0.3% is allowed in "cold pack cheese food." The upper pH limit for effectiveness is 6.5. The maximum acceptable daily intake for human consumption is 25 mg/kg, or 1750 mg daily for an average adult (70 kg). Under some conditions, particularly at high concentrations or when combined with nitrites, potassium sorbate has shown genotoxic activity in vitro. Three studies conducted in the 1970s did not find it to have any carcinogenic effects in rats.

References

Potassium compounds Preservatives Sorbates E-number additives

Production

Uses

Toxicology

See also

References