Preservatives and Wine

I received this question recently from a friend:

Just got some dried figs. Unlike the sun dried Greek ones I usually get saw these were packed with potassium sorbate and sulfur dioxide. How bad are these? The figs are remarkably fresh compared to the Greek ones.

In my opinion all preservatives are bad because they are man made and can build up in the body without our noticing. However, realistically, if you stay aware of what you're eating and keep preservatives in other foods to a minimum, it's probably OK to allow them in a few foods that you enjoy much more.

I looked up these preservatives. Potassium Sorbate is the potassium salt of sorbic acid, an organic acid that has been used extensively as a fungistatic agent for foods. Dangers of food additives and preservatives notwithstanding, potassium sorbate perhaps falls into the category of food preservatives which are not seriously harmful for health, though prolonged use could lead to allergic reactions, nausea, diarrhea and nutrient loss in food. Toxicity of potassium sorbate is akin to that of table salt.

Sulfur dioxide, however, is a bit nastier. I found a bunch of stuff about it being one of the 6 major air pollutants, a result of burning oil and coal. It's used in bleaching and in chemical manufacture. I also found that it is considered an Unclassifiable Carcinogen by the World Health Organization, and I found it in a list of Top 20 additives to avoid. Um, yuk. They put that in food?

Interestingly, both of these preservatives are common in wine. Now, while I had a good idea that alcohol is filled with some pretty nasty stuff, I decided ignorance is bliss and continued to drink my favorite alcoholic beverage. This made me suspicious, however--how much wine do you have to drink to get toxic levels of sulfur dioxide? I did a little research and found some truly appalling information:

Evidently, "we can make a totally preservative free wine but it will turn to vinegar in 6 months."
Thus, there are over 50 common preservatives that can be added to wine. These include clay, acid, artificial yeasts, enzymes, sugar, gelatin, and charcoal. Eggs and a milk protein called casein can also be used, while another permitted additive is the fish bladder extract, isinglass.

Another is calcium carbonate, a mineral salt sometimes used to deacidify wines that is "toxic at 'high doses.'" Then there's everyone's favorite, food dyes, as well as high-fructose corn syrup.

The craziest thing about all of this is that there's no site I could find that definitively listed the ingredients in wine. (Beer's not safe either; it contains chemicals and HFCS). I searched "wine additives," "wine preservatives," "wine ingredients," even "wine nutrition" and got mostly directions on how to make my own wine. These sites indicated that sulfur dioxide--one of the top 20 most toxic chemicals--is an accepted ingredient in wine making. How companies get away without having to list ingredients on labels is mystifying.

Probably the best option is to buy organic wine. I really like Our Daily Red, an organic table wine that's getting pretty popular even in regular grocery stores. As for higher end options, it's scary to think of paying that much money for something that's possibly loaded with toxic chemicals.

It looks like wine may not be so good for your heart after all.