Toxicological evaluation of some food
additives including anticaking agents,
antimicrobials, antioxidants, emulsifiers
and thickening agents
WHO FOOD ADDITIVES SERIES NO. 5
The evaluations contained in this publication
were prepared by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert
Committee on Food Additives which met in Geneva,
25 June - 4 July 19731
World Health Organization
Geneva
1974
1 Seventeenth Report of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on
Food Additives, Wld Hlth Org. techn. Rep. Ser., 1974, No. 539;
FAO Nutrition Meetings Report Series, 1974, No. 53.
STARCH SODIUM SUCCINATE
Explanation
Modification is performed by 4% succinic anhydride to form the
succinic acid ester. The extent of esterification is not known. The
material used in the tests described below was prepared in the
laboratory, where a high reaction efficiency (80, or 3.2% of succinic
anhydride reacted, a degree of substitution of about 0.05) may have
been attained.
BIOLOGICAL DATA
BIOCHEMICAL ASPECTS
No enzymatic hydrolysis data about in vitro behaviour are
available. Caloric value was determined in groups of 10 male rats fed
for four weeks a basal diet supplemented with either starch, starch
succinate or sucrose, the last in graded amounts. All rats were
normally active and remained healthy. The caloric equivalent of the
starch ester, as determined from comparison with the dose response
curve for sucrose at 0, 0.75 g, 1.5 g, 3.0 g and 4.5 g (equivalent to
0, 3, 6, 12 and 18 calories per day), was identical with that of
native starch (Carson, 1960).
TOXICOLOGICAL STUDIES
Acute toxicity
None available.
Short-term studies
Rat
Groups of three male and three female rats were fed for 10 weeks
on diets containing 70% of starch or starch sodium succinate as their
sole source of carbohydrate. Groups were fed ad lib and also pair-
fed. No significant differences were observed in growth rates, feed
efficiency or haemoglobin levels between the various groups. No
histopathological examinations were reported (Oser, 1945).
Long-term studies
None available.
Comments:
The toxicological investigations of this starch ester are
inadequate. Adequate metabolic studies, preferably in man, are
desirable; furthermore, 90-day studies in at least two species (one a
non-rodent mammal), using material with a known degree of
substitution, are required.
EVALUATION
Not possible on the data available.
REFERENCES
Carson, S. (1960) Unpublished report by Food and Drug Research
Laboratories Inc., No. 80878c-e, 1 December 1960
Oser, B. L. (1945) Unpublished report by Food Research Laboratories
Inc., No. 39989-92, 15 February 1945