Review: Putative mutagens and carcinogens in foods. II: Sorbate and sorbate‐nitrite interactions

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Abstract
Sorbic acid and potassium sorbate are widely used Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) food additives with an extremely high (25 mg/kg) acceptable daily intake level. Some children between the ages of 6–24 months may actually ingest this amount. While presently not permitted to be added directly to meat and poultry products in the US, potassium sorbate has been proposed as a preservative for bacon, as an additive in conjunction with nitrite and ascorbate or erythorbate. Sorbate and nitrite form several species of direct-acting mutagens and genotoxic agents when present together at pH's mimicking gastric conditions. Two of the mutagens have been identified as ethylnitrolic acid and 1,4-dinitro-2-methylpyrrole. Mutagen formation is blocked by ascorbate at low pH. Ascorbate at eightfold molar excess leads to inactivation of 1,4-dinitro-2-methylpyrrole near neutral pH but does not destroy the mutagenic nitro compound at low pHs. The combination of sorbate with nitrite represents a potential health risk in the absence of adequate inactivating levels of ascorbate (vitamin C).