Assessment of Benzoic Acid in Some Soft Drinks Marketed in Dutse, Jigawa State, Nigeria

Benzoic acid, which is used commonly as sodium benzoate is one of the most utilized chemical preservative because of its role in increasing soft drink’s shelf life and inhibiting the microbial growth. It is however, have detrimental effects to human especially at high concentrations. This research, was therefore carried out to assess the levels of benzoic acid in soft drinks marketed in Dutse, Nigeria; and to find out whether they comply with the established regulations. Eleven (11) different brands of soft drinks categorized as carbonated and non-carbonated drinks were analyzed for benzoic acid by UV-visible spectrophotometer. Based on the findings of this work, benzoic acid concentrations were found to be within the standard limits and differed significantly among the samples produced from different company; whereas samples from similar company have closely matched concentrations.