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Comment by ijijijjij | Hacker News Reader

who said vitamin C? NOT ME... don't put words into my mouth? it's actually not even the most common preservative that is added to our foods...

sodium benzoate might be the most common one... which they say is considered safe in small doses because they want to save money by extending shelf life.

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Pretty sure ascorbic acid is the most common antioxidant preservative (sometimes naturally occurring of course). But it is not an antimicrobial agent, hence the frequent problematic combination with benzoates. Tho, not sure about the US, I think benzoates are not the most common antimicrobial in food. It's probably citric, lactic and acetic acid, and sorbates.

My comment was simply a reaction to the sweeping claim that "preservatives are basically poisons". So to be pedantic you sort of said vitamin C?

jijijijij's claim that it can be harmful in combination with other preservatives is interesting, but I think I'll trust Derek Lowe on the danger of sodium benzoate + ascorbic acid: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sodium-benzoate-no...

(These usernames confuse me, and is quite frankly a bit suspicious)

You mean this?

> I think that my favorite, in a way, is the assertion that when sodium benzoate is exposed to ascorbic acid, that it immediately converts to benzene, which cues up a look at benzene's (most definitely alarming) toxicity. The source for this would have to be this paper from 2008, which analyzed a long list of beverages for benzene contamination, and found that the only detectable levels were in carrot juice intended for infants.

That's the whole "take". Looks like your guy's snark is rather poorly informed...