Preservatives in Wet Wipes

Preservatives , also called antiseptic substance ,refers to the natural or synthetic chemical constituent used in food, drug, colorant, biological specimen, etc.. to defer rot caused by microorganism proliferation or chemical reaction. Common preservatives includes nitrite and sulfur dioxide.

When it comes to preservatives, they are widely considered harmful. However, preservatives bring about no harm and no side effect if used safely. Strict regulations have also been formulated on preservatives in China.

Currently common preservatives (antiputrefactiva) are sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate. Sodium benzoate has stronger toxicity than potassium sorbate, while the antibacterial potency of the former is about 2/3 lower than that of the latter. Therefore, potassium sorbate is gradually used in many countries. However, sodium benzoate is of lower price so it is still widely used for carbonated drinks and fruit juice. On the other hand, potassium sorbate has strong antibacterial potency and low toxicity. It can participate in metabolism and turns to carbon dioxide and water. From the point of view of preservative development trend, the preservative produced by biological fermentation will be the mainstream in the future.

Till now, type, function and harm of preservatives in wet wipes are also focus of customers. It’s necessary to study tests on preservatives and their migration in human body to guarantee safety of wet wipes. In fact, wet wipe quality and safety are also the focus of wet wipe production and test. As consumption view and life standard develop, the public have larger demand for wet wipes. However, wet wipes can be easily influenced by microorganisms due to their abundant moisture and nutrient. Wet wipe producers also seek better efficacy and application of wet wipes by carrying out the production strictly.

The chemical additives used in wet wipes can be absorbed by human body to different extent, which can lead to safety problems. Consumers also pay special attention to methyl isothiazolinone (MIT). MIT as a useful preservative is a kind of isothiazolinone with cytotoxicity and neurotoxicity. It can be absorbed by the human body and have an negative influence on hormone metabolism directly or indirectly. Its metabolites often show certain biological activity and accumulation and can indirectly affect human body for a long time. All in all, preservatives have influence on human body in different degree.

But experts also point out: Preservative is horrible but it’s more terrible to use no preservatives. Used safely, preservatives are harmless and nontoxic to human body and their side effects are even less than that of sodium. In China, 32 additives are approved as food preservatives. For example, potassium sorbate has strong preservative potency and lower toxicity. It also exist in human body to participate in normal metabolism.

Some preservatives used in wet wipes are preservatives containing benzene (such as phenoxyethanol, methyl benzoate...), isothiazolinone (MIT...) and bromine-base preservatives (bromopropane, ethylene glycol...)

Preservatives is key point part of the formula of wet tissue, such as the alcohol pad wet tissue or sanitary wet tissue, it can be in the pure liquid or even gel, on our alcohol pad wet tissue packing machine, we can adopt different filling pump for pure liquid solution or sticky gel.If you are considering to produce alcohol pad or wet tissue product, please contact us for more discussion and communication.