Page 302 - Analytical method for food addtives

19

E444: Sucrose acetate isobutyrate

19.1 Introduction

The major food groups contributing to dietary intake of sucrose acetate isobutyrate
are cloudy soft drinks with the maximum permitted level of 300 mg/kg being
allowed in non-alcoholic flavoured cloudy drinks. The ADI for sucrose acetate
isobutyrate is 10 mg/kg body weight/day.
Sucrose acetate isobutyrate (SAIB), a mixture of esters of sucrose, with a
composition approximating the name sucrose diacetate hexaisobutyrate, has been
used for over 30 years in many countries as a ‘weighting’ or ‘density-adjusting’
agent in non-alcoholic carbonated and non-carbonated beverages. 1

19.2 Methods of analysis
The only references that could be found for sucrose acetate isobutyrate were for the
chemical and physical properties and for toxicological information with uses as an
additive and recommended acceptable daily intakes of this compound. No refer-
ences could be found for its analysis in foodstuffs since 1980; however, a dated GC
2
method with diethyl ether extraction of soft drinks was published in 1972 and
3
1973 , and now recently a GC method with solid phase extraction of food additive
4
premixes has been published in 2001. A summary of the method is given in the
Appendix and Table 19.1, together with the matrices for which the method is
applicable. Statistical parameters for this method are summarised in Table 19.2.

19.3 Recommendations
4
The recent method published for sucrose acetate isobutyrate needs to be validated
by collaborative trial.