The DOI matches its Crossref record; 57 of the 57 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Benzoic acid and its derivatives as naturally occurring compounds in foods and as additives: Uses, exposure, and controversy
Open accessAbstract
Benzoic acid is an aromatic carboxylic acid naturally present in plant and animal tissues, which can also be produced by microorganisms. Benzoic acid and a wide range of derivatives and related benzenic compounds, such as salts, alkyl esters, parabens, benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, and benzoyl peroxide, are commonly used as antibacterial and antifungal preservatives and as flavoring agents in food, cosmetic, hygiene, and pharmaceutical products. As a result of their widespread occurrence, production, and uses, these compounds are largely distributed in the environment and found in water, soil, and air. Consequently, human exposure to them can be high, common, and lengthy. This review is mainly focused on the presence and use of benzoic acid in foods but it also covers the occurrence, uses, human exposure, metabolism, toxicology, analytical methods for detection, and legal limits for benzoic acid and its derivatives. Their controversial effects and potential public health concerns are discussed.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
McCann, D., Barrett, A., Cooper, A., Crumpler, D., Dalen, L., Grimshaw, K., Kitchin, E., Lok, K., Porteous, L., Prince, E., et al. (2007) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(07)61306-3 · Cited by 1,158
Preservative Agents in Foods: Mode of Action and Microbial Resistance Mechanisms
Brul, S. (1999) · International Journal of Food Microbiology · doi:10.1016/s0168-1605(99)00072-0 · Cited by 1,041
Adding Molecules to Food, Pros and Cons: A Review on Synthetic and Natural Food Additives
Carocho, M., Barreiro, M. F., Morales, P., & Ferreira, I. C. F. R. (2014) · Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety · doi:10.1111/1541-4337.12065 · Cited by 767
Parabens. From environmental studies to human health
Błędzka, D., Gromadzińska, J., & Wąsowicz, W. (2014) · Environment International · doi:10.1016/j.envint.2014.02.007 · Cited by 712
Darbre, P. D., & Harvey, P. W. (2008) · Journal of Applied Toxicology · doi:10.1002/jat.1358 · Cited by 697
Studies on the mechanism of the antifungal action of benzoate
Krebs, H. A., Wiggins, D., Stubbs, M., Sols, A., & Bedoya, F. (1983) · Biochemical Journal · doi:10.1042/bj2140657 · Cited by 387
Final Report on the Safety Assessment of Benzyl Alcohol, Benzoic Acid, and Sodium Benzoate
(2001) · International Journal of Toxicology · doi:10.1080/10915810152630729 · Cited by 367
CONTROLLED TRIAL OF OLIGOANTIGENIC TREATMENT IN THE HYPERKINETIC SYNDROME
Egger, J., Graham, P. J., Carter, C. M., Gumley, D., & Soothill, J. F. (1985) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(85)91206-1 · Cited by 326
De Jong, C., & Badings, H. T. (1990) · Journal of High Resolution Chromatography · doi:10.1002/jhrc.1240130204 · Cited by 316
Saad, B., Bari, M. F., Saleh, M. I., Ahmad, K., & Talib, M. K. M. (2005) · Journal of Chromatography A · doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2004.10.105 · Cited by 265
Cited by
Huang, H.-Y., Xie, M., Wang, S.-Q., Huang, Y.-T., Luo, Y.-H., Yu, D.-G., Cai, Z., & Zhu, J.-B. (2025) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.4c17703 · Cited by 33
Metadata
- Authors
- del Olmo, A., Calzada, J., & Nuñez, M.
- Venue
- Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2017-05-17
- Volume
- 57
- Issue
- 14
- Pages
- 3084-3103
- ISSN
- 1040-8398 (ISSN-L)
- 1549-7852
- OpenAlex
- W2218128633
- Cited by
- 414
- References
- 57
- FWCI
- 6.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Benzoic acid and its derivatives as naturally occurring compounds in foods and as additives: Uses, exposure, and controversy. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1080/10408398.2015.1087964
- The paper
- del Olmo, A., Calzada, J., & Nuñez, M. (2017). Benzoic acid and its derivatives as naturally occurring compounds in foods and as additives: Uses, exposure, and controversy. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2015.1087964
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
