Fun Food Additive of the Day -- EDTA!
While investigating the ingredients contained within a can of Lipton® Iced Brisk - Iced Lemon Tea, I found this tasty gem -- calcium disodium EDTA.Wikipedia description:
EDTA is a widely-used acronym for the chemical compound ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (and many other names, see table). EDTA refers to the chelating agent with the formula (HO2CCH2)2NCH2CH2N(CH2CO2H)2. This amino acid is widely used to sequester di- and trivalent metal ions. EDTA binds to metals via four carboxylate and two amine groups. EDTA forms specially strong complexes with Mn(II), Cu(II), Fe(III), and Co(III).[1]
According to the dubious nutrition list on the can, the job of EDTA is "to protect freshness," but the Wikipedia page explains it's use in soft drinks(among other things) a bit more throughly:
Soft drinks containing ascorbic acid and sodium benzoate, to mitigate formation of benzene (a carcinogen)
Why would you want to drink anything that could possibly create benzene in the first place? Never mind anything else that is added to prevent it.
Labels: Fun Food Additive of the Day, health, nutrition, science
posted by Crackpot! @ 3:47 PM
1 Comments:
some soft drinks cause vital parts of DNA to shut down according to an article I found.
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