Q: What should be paid attention to when using EDTA-iron in health food application?

A: The United States FDA has included EDTA-iron sodium in the list of food additives, and China has also included it in the list of nutritional fortification substances in the Standard for Uses of Food Additives, which can be used in soy sauce. Since EDTA-iron sodium is a strong chelating agent, it can complex other bivalent cations in vivo, and has interference on bivalent cation-dependent enzymes, the compatibility of EDTA-iron sodium with Chinese medicine lacks scientific literature support. According to the available information, health food review experts are still controversial about its edible safety. Therefore, the current application of such products should be paid attention to:

1. EDTA-iron is not suitable to be used as a source of iron in nutrient supplements;

2. Application function: for health food with EDTA-iron as raw material, the applied health function is temporarily limited to promoting lead discharge and improving nutritional anemia;

3. Dosage: refer to the provisions of the Standard for the Use of Nutritional Fortification Substances in Foods (GB 14880), the daily consumption of EDTA-iron for adults should not exceed 92mg (converted to 12mg iron), and the amount of EDTA-iron for children should be halved;

4. In view of the unclear compatibility mechanism between EDTA-iron and Chinese medicine, the compatibility of the two is not advocated in principle (except for raw materials such as donkey-hide gelatin and red dates with blood tonic function).

Source: SAMR

Note: This article is compiled by Antion. Please indicate the source for reprint.

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