Survey Results of Benzene Content in Soft Drinks

For almost 20 years, it has been known that if soft drinks are preserved with benzoic acid, it reacts under certain circumstances with ascorbic acid in drinks forming carcinogenic benzene. The concentrations of benzene in 49 soft drinks analysed within the five-year survey, obtained from the Czech market, were below 10 mu g.l(-1); the average benzene content was about 1 mu g.l(-1). The study showed that benzene content is not easily predictable: from the following factors of composition (benzoate, ascorbic acid, sweeteners, minerals, CO2) the only significant positive correlation was identified between benzene and the content of benzoate. More than composition, it seems that both external contamination of raw materials and storage conditions cause positive findings of benzene.