What are the alternative solutions to the sodium dehydroacetate trend?

Dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt: also known as dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt, is a food preservative, mold, yeast, bacteria have a very good inhibition, widely used in beverage, food, feed processing industry, can extend the storage period, to avoid mold loss. Its mechanism of action is to effectively penetrate into the cell body, inhibit the respiration of microorganisms, so as to achieve the role of anticorrosion, mold preservation and moisturizing. According to the official micro-blog of Lesaffre, the preservative effect of sodium dehydroacetate is about 2-10 times of sodium benzoate.
GB 2760 proposes to delete the use of dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt in five food categories
Currently, according to GB 2760-2014 National Standard for Food Safety Standards for the Use of Food Additives, sodium dehydroacetate can be used in seven major categories of food, see Figure 1.

On March 31, 2021, the Committee for the Review of National Standards for Food Safety (CRNSFS) publicly solicited comments on the National Standard for Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives (closed).

The public opinion draft is mainly revised based on the results of food safety risk assessment and the use of sodium dehydroacetate in related industries, deleting the use of dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt in butter and concentrated butter, starch products, bread, pastries, bakery fillings and surfaces, pre-prepared meat products, cooked meat products, fruit and vegetable juices (syrups), and only permitting its use in preserved vegetables, preserved mushrooms and algae, fermented soybean products and compound seasonings, and adjusting the maximum use level of sodium dehydroacetate in preserved vegetables. and algae, fermented soybean products and compound seasonings, and adjusted the maximum use level of sodium dehydroacetate in pickled vegetables.

In addition, due to the consideration of the principle of carry-over, in the actual production, the use of composite flavoring will also be greatly compressed.
For some of the market for flavors and fragrances to play the subterfuge, the draft also made the following precautionary provisions: “Table B.2 in the food spices should be formulated into food flavors for products flavored, if the food in the play of other food additives, should be in accordance with the provisions of this standard”. The reason for the amendment is that “in order to avoid the abuse of food flavors, after industry research, it was agreed that food flavors with other food additive functions should not be used directly for food flavoring, i.e., they should not function as other food additives in the name of food flavors”.
Why has the use of sodium dehydroacetate, which works so well, been restricted or banned?
As early as May 2020, the Shanghai Food Additives and Ingredients Industry Association has issued a paper “the country proposed to significantly reduce the use of dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt in food”.
In fact, the International Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) did not approve the use of dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt as food additives; the United States, Japan and other countries allow the use, but the amount and scope of use is strictly controlled. For this reason, China is also concerned about the safety of dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt and attaches importance to it, the National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment commissioned the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct a study on the safety of dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt.
The results of the study showed that the acute oral toxicity of sodium dehydroacetate in mice was of low toxicity level, and female mice were more sensitive. Sub-acute toxicity, 200mg/kg BW, 100mg/kg BW dose can cause abnormal changes in a number of indicators in rats, and female rats are more sensitive to the toxic effects, the specific mechanism needs to be further studied.
After this safety study, the National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (NCFSRA) proposed to significantly reduce the amount and scope of use of dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt in food.
Which food industries will be most affected if the new standard is implemented? [1]
First: meat products In the meat products, especially in the marinated meat industry, sodium dehydroacetate has always played a leading role. The original national regulations can be used preservatives roughly sodium dehydroacetate, sodium diacetate, potassium sorbate and lactic acid streptococci and polylysine and hydrochloride.
However, these products have one or the other shortcomings. Such as sodium diacetate, the larger odor and additive amount will make the use of enterprises to consider the slight impact on the taste; potassium sorbate 0.075g/kg additive amount, the inhibition of bacterial efficacy to make users stop; lactic acid streptococcus lactis because of the biological preservatives, the formation of the effect of prolonged heating of its effectiveness, at present, temporarily unable to monitor the effect of the formation of the use of the natural effect can not be assessed; poly-lysine and hydrochloride Polylysine and hydrochloride are not widely used due to their high market price and biological properties.
Therefore, for a long time, with good antibacterial properties, but also high temperature resistance, cost-effective and high sodium dehydroacetate has become the protagonist of the marinated meat industry deservedly.
Second: baking class in the baking class a large number of preservatives used in sodium dehydroacetate, potassium sorbate, propionate and polylysine series. Sodium dehydroacetate to mold good inhibition and a certain heat-resistant properties and dominate, looking at several other varieties are difficult to be this big task. The exit of sodium dehydroacetate will certainly form a huge shock to the entire baking industry, and now manufacturers have fully recognized the impact of the crisis, has been actively acted upon, have launched their own alternative products.
Third: starch this industry is mainly involved in powder round and part of the rice noodles, cold noodles and potato flour industry (to starch products reported products), this line of work was originally antiseptic is a bottleneck, on the one hand, companies want to expand production, the formation of a larger sales radius, the need for longer shelf life, on the other hand, the state of such products more and more stringent requirements. And these products are generally small and medium-sized production enterprises, production enterprises are also open, the production process is difficult to achieve asepsis, so to extend the shelf life of the methods and ways to put forward higher requirements.
Fourth: The change in the pickle industry, although it did not outlaw the use of sodium dehydroacetate in pickles, but made changes to the amount of additives, from the original 1g/kg to 0.3g/kg, the use of the limit has been reduced by 2/3, which makes the preservation of pickles, which was already in dire straits, even worse.
Microorganisms in nature have already adapted to or tolerated the attack or inhibition from 1g/kg of dehydroacetic acid, and now that the firepower has suddenly disappeared and the fighting power has been halved, it is expected that the microorganisms that caused the deterioration of pickles will multiply in large quantities in order to celebrate the tolerance of human beings towards them. How to reorganize the preservation of pickles to counteract the “care” of pickle microorganisms is a major problem in front of food preservationists.
What are the alternatives to sodium dehydroacetate?
Taking meat products as an example, as the preservative with the most similar efficacy and bacterial inhibition spectrum to sodium dehydroacetate, potassium sorbate is a more suitable alternative, however, in the National Standard for Food Safety – Standard for the Use of Food Additives GB 2760-2014, the maximum use of potassium sorbate in cooked meat products is only 0.075g/kg, obviously, under these conditions, the use of potassium sorbate instead of dehydroacetic acid is a very good alternative to the use of sodium dehydroacetate. Potassium sorbate instead of sodium dehydroacetate is unrealistic, and also can’t play the corresponding preservation effect (due to the specificity of potassium sorbate, it may also play a counterproductive role); while the bacteriostatic spectrum of streptococcus lactic acid, polylysine hydrochloride, bisacetic acid sodium and sodium dehydroacetate have obvious differences, and the overlap degree is too small.
The choice of alternative preservative additives to sodium dehydroacetate, then, is especially important in order to address the preservation and freshness issues of non-sodium dehydroacetate.
Below is my collection of companies that claim to have alternative sodium dehydroacetate products. Please be reminded that the following is not an advertisement (of course, no one pays me for advertising), but is the original text of some propaganda phrases that I have collected from the Internet. I do not take any responsibility for the authenticity of the propaganda and the application effect of the products, purely to provide you with some reference, you need to contact and careful screening. Continue reading cum default acceptance of the above agreement.
First, Lesaffre Group LESAFFRE “France Lesaffre Group Technology Center after years of research and development and repeated practice, has been achieved through the production process control, improvement of packaging and the use of natural antiseptic products to avoid the use of sodium dehydroacetate and other preservatives. As an industry leader, Lesaffre has provided comprehensive shelf-life solutions including technical support, production line and process modifications for countless well-known companies worldwide.”
二、Shanghai YiNong Biotechnology Co.

 

DAYAN DYNESOZE “PROFILE, product information Product name: shelf-life extender for fillings NatuLac-BF Characteristics: light yellow powder Application: baking, moon cakes, dumplings and other fillings to extend the shelf-life Characteristics: 1) Inhibition of migration of moisture for the improvement of yield 2) inhibit the transfer of moisture to improve the quality of the decline 3) Shelf life extension effect pH (1%): 5.0 ~ 6.0 Additive amount: 1.0% of the total amount of raw materials with the comparison”
Fourth, Guangdong Guangyi Science and Technology Industry Co., Ltd “Guangyi company in 2018 has been stocked with preservative formulations that do not contain dehydroacetic acid, the product has been marketed and sold in 2020, a brief description of the product is as follows:” 1, compound preservative (bacteriostatic type) 2, compound bread preservative (S)
V. Zhejiang Shengda Biological Research Institute “In August 2019, the company set up a project to carry out the research and development of alternative ‘dehydrogenation’ food preservation solutions for bakery products, starch products, meat products and other industries, and now has a variety of ‘dehydrogenation’ alternative solutions, as detailed in the following table:” alternative solutions, see the following table:”
Shenyang Renda Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has been committed to the research of food additives for more than ten years, and has developed a variety of “sodium dehydroacetate-free” preservative products, including natural plant extracts and fermentation products based on natural products. At present, they have been tested in the market and promoted in large quantities.
Chengdu Fengrong Food Technology Co., Ltd. has developed a sodium dehydroacetate-free preservative for casual meat products–Guicao 6.
Nantong Aokai Biotechnology Development Co., Ltd. was founded in 2000, is a Chinese national high-tech enterprises specializing in food additives and biotechnology development, production and sales. The company’s main products are food additives, feed additives, water treatment agents, cosmetic additives and other products.
Advice to enterprises
The revision of the use of dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt in this opinion draft will involve the modification of food formulas and labels, which should be taken seriously by enterprises that use dehydroacetic acid and its sodium salt as preservatives.
Of course, the revision of national food safety standards have a process, after the consultation, still need to further review, discussion, during the proposed revision of the content may still have to modify; in addition, after the release of a certain period of time after the implementation of often, will also provide a transition period for enterprises to respond.
At present, although enterprises do not need to modify the formula and labeling according to the opinion draft, the revision of the food additive is indeed based on the results of the safety assessment, and the possibility of implementation is relatively high. Enterprises can control the printing of relevant product packages in an appropriate amount according to the sales situation.
Enterprises in a position to do so can also refer to the proposed revision of GB 2760 to start the development of new preservation programs and adjust product formulations to respond in a timely manner. In compliance with the requirements of GB 2760, for different foods, the use of freshness “fence technology”, the fence factors analyzed one by one, in the case of legal, screening to determine the optimal program, do not have to wait for boots on the ground, in advance of the implementation, to avoid problems with hasty convergence.