What is known about adverse reactions to potassium sorbate?/nA female patient has been ingesting dr

Fråga: What is known about adverse reactions to potassium sorbate? A female patient has been ingesting dried prunes where potassium sorbate has been added as preservative. She has now developed muscular pain and general malaise and thinks that this might have been caused by the potassium sorbate.

Sammanfattning: Potassium sorbate is a preservative agent with antifungal properties that can cause contact dermatitis but systemic adverse reactions in doses normally used have not been reported.

Svar: The sorbates, potassium sorbate and sorbic acid, are used as preservatives in pharmaceutical products, cosmetics and foods. The concentrations used are up to 0.2 per cent. When used topically sorbates have been reported to cause contact dermatitis (1). In a review article it is stated that sorbates are primarily used for their fungistatic activity. The major adverse effect is contact dermatitis which seems to be more common when higher concentrations are used (2). Although potassium sorbate is present in some oral pharmaceuticals, no systemic adverse reactions have been reported.

We have done a Medline search and not found any reference on systemic adverse reactions caused by sorbates.