Mohammadzadah-Aghdash H et al (2018). Safety assessment of sodium acetate, sodium diacetate and potassium sorbate food additives, 15: 211-215. Food Chem.

Summary: Food additives such as potassium sorbate (PS) are essential materials for prevention of food spoilage. Based on the results, it can be assumed the additives at low concentration can be considered as non-cyto-genotoxic agents. The results showed that treated cells with low concentration of SA, SDA and PS food additives did not show any significant cytotoxic and genotoxic effects and at low concentration can be used in food industry.

Abstract: Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of sodium acetate (SA), sodium diacetate (SDA), and potassium sorbate (PS) was tested on Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC). Cytotoxicity was investigated by MTT assay and flow cytometry analysis, while genotoxicity was evaluated using DNA fragmentation and DAPI staining assays. The growth of treated HUVECs with various concentrations of SA, SDA and PS decreased in a dose-and time-dependent manner. The IC50 of 487.71, 485.82 and 659.96 µM after 24 h and IC50 of 232.05, 190.19 and 123.95 µM after 48 h of treatment were attained for SA, SDA and PS, respectively. Flow cytometry analysis showed that early and late apoptosis percentage in treated cells was not considerable. Also, neither considerable DNA fragmentation nor DNA smear was observed using DAPI staining and DNA ladder assays. Overall, it can be concluded that the aforementioned food additives can be used as safe additives at low concentration in food industry.