Mutagenicity and genotoxicity of sorbic acid-amine reaction products

Sorbic acid (E200) and its salts (potassium and calcium sorbate: E202 and E 203) are allowed for use as preservatives in numerous processed foods. Sorb ic acid had a conjugated system of double bonds which makes it susceptible to nucleophilic attack, sometimes giving mutagenic products. Under conditio ns typical of food processing (50-80 degreesC), we analysed the cyclic deri vatives resulting from a double addition reaction between sorbic acid and v arious amines. Mutagenesis studies, involving Ames' test and genotoxicity s tudies with HeLa cells and plasmid DNA, showed that none of the products st udied presented either mutagenic or genotoxic activities.