Benzoic acid intake from processed foods in South Korea
What it found
Average consumers in South Korea took in about 4.1% of the daily limit for benzoic acid from processed foods.
High consumers reached about 28.1% of that limit.
What they found
Studies in people
Average consumer intake
For a typical consumer, the estimated daily intake was 207.3 μg/kg.bw/day. This equals 4.1% of the acceptable daily limit set by international experts.
High consumer intake
People who ate large amounts of processed foods had an estimated intake of 1,406.7 μg/kg.bw/day. This is 28.1% of the acceptable daily limit.
Natural occurrence estimate
When adding naturally occurring benzoic acid based on new local standards, the theoretical maximum intake was 109.9 μg/kg.bw/day. That is 2.2% of the acceptable daily limit.
Other findings
Detection in foods
Out of 127,628 food samples tested, benzoic acid was found in 1,803 of them. That is a detection rate of 1.4%.
Amounts found
Across all samples tested, the average amount was 1.3 mg/kg. For only the samples where it was found, the average was 89.4 mg/kg.
What the authors conclude
- They estimated that both average and high consumers in South Korea take in benzoic acid well below the international daily limit.
- They found that including naturally occurring benzoic acid still keeps total intake far under that limit.
How it was done
The authors wanted to measure how much benzoic acid Korean consumers get from processed foods. They also looked at extra amounts that might come from natural sources in food.
They tested 127,628 processed food samples in South Korea in 2020. They then used national diet survey data from 2018 to estimate how much benzoic acid people take in each day. They compared those estimates to an international daily limit.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This work only measured exposure levels in South Korea. It did not look at whether benzoic acid causes any health effects in people.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Republic of Korea; Sungkyukwan University, Republic of Korea
The paper
- Title
- Exposure assessment of benzoic acid from processed foods in South Korea
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Jung Y, Choi S, Oh KS, Sun N (2022). Exposure assessment of benzoic acid from processed foods in South Korea. Food additives & contaminants. Part A, Chemistry, analysis, control, exposure & risk assessment. doi:10.1080/19440049.2021.1999506PubMed 34781828DOI
Summary written 1 Oct 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error