Benzoic acid intake from packaged drinks in Hong Kong students
What it found
Secondary school students in Hong Kong took in small amounts of benzoic acid from packaged non-alcoholic drinks.
Even heavy drinkers stayed well below the accepted daily limit.
What they found
Studies in people
Daily intake estimates
Average consumers took in 0.31 mg per kg of body weight each day. High consumers, at the 95th percentile, took in 0.97 mg per kg of body weight each day.
Share of daily limit
These amounts made up 6.1% of the acceptable daily intake for average consumers. For high consumers, they made up 19.3% of the limit, which is set at 0 to 5 mg per kg of body weight.
Biggest source
Soft drinks contributed the most benzoic acid from packaged beverages. This matched patterns seen in other countries.
What the authors conclude
- They found that packaged drinks gave secondary school students only a small share of the acceptable daily intake of benzoic acid.
- They note that soft drinks were the main source of this exposure, matching trends seen elsewhere.
How it was done
The authors wanted to measure how much benzoic acid local teenagers were getting from packaged drinks sold in shops.
They surveyed secondary school students in Hong Kong about their drink habits using a questionnaire from 2000. They then measured benzoic acid levels in various packaged drinks sold locally in late 2006, including soft drinks, juices and teas. These two sets of data were combined to estimate daily intake.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This work only looked at packaged non-alcoholic drinks, so it does not capture all sources of benzoic acid in a diet.
- It relied on drinking habits reported years before the actual drink testing took place.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Centre for Food Safety, China
The paper
- Title
- Dietary exposure of secondary school students in Hong Kong to benzoic acid in prepackaged non-alcoholic beverages
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Ma KM, Chan CM, Chung SW, Ho YY, Xiao Y (2009). Dietary exposure of secondary school students in Hong Kong to benzoic acid in prepackaged non-alcoholic beverages. Food additives & contaminants. Part A, Chemistry, analysis, control, exposure & risk assessment. doi:10.1080/02652030802256341PubMed 19680865DOI
Summary written 1 Oct 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error