L'Anidride solforosa è un composto chimico, ossido di zolfo o diossido di zolfo o biossido di zolfo.

Si presenta in forma di gas incolore dall'odore irritante.

Il gruppo dei solfiti comprende:

A cosa serve e dove si usa

Alimentazione

Ingrediente inserito nella lista degli additivi alimentari europei come E220, conservante e antiossidante in alimenti. 

L'Anidride solforosa viene usato come conservante ed antiossidante soprattutto in campo enologico con il nome di Solfiti.

Sicurezza

I livelli massimi di anidride solforosa che un vino può contenere sono 160 ppm per il vino rosso, 210 ppm per il vino bianco e 400 ppm per i vini dolci. Queste le regole vigenti nellUnione Europea. Livelli abbastanza simili si applicano negli Stati Uniti, in Australia e in tutto il mondo.

I solfiti sono responsabili di reazioni avverse a soggetti sensibili ai solfiti, ad esempio male di testa.

I punti critici sono gli effetti locali, ad esempio l'irritazione gastrointestinale o la corrosività (1). 

Per questo composto chimico sono stati selezionati gli studi più rilevanti con una sintesi dei loro contenuti:

Anidride solforosa studi

• Formula molecolare: SO₂  O₂S
• Peso molecolare: 64.058 g/mol
• UNII: 0UZA3422Q4
• CAS: 7446-09-5    12624-32-7  12396-99-5  8014-94-6  83008-56-4  89125-89-3  1239882-82-6
• EC Number: 231-195-2
• FEMA Number: 3039
• PubChem Substance ID 329769309
• MDL number MFCD00011450 
• Beilstein Registry Number 3535237

Sinonimi: 

• Sulfur dioxide
• Sulphur dioxide
• Sulfurous anhydride
• Surfur dioxide (anhydrous)
• Sulfur dioxide (NF)
• Sulfurdioxide
• sulfer dioxide
• Dioxide, Sulfur
• Sulfon
• Oxosulfane oxide 

Bibliografia_____________________________________________________________________

(1) Kramer NI, Hoffmans Y, Wu S, Thiel A, Thatcher N, Allen TEH, Levorato S, Traussnig H, Schulte S, Boobis A, Rietjens IMCM, Vinken M. Characterizing the coverage of critical effects relevant in the safety evaluation of food additives by AOPs. Arch Toxicol. 2019 Aug;93(8):2115-2125. doi: 10.1007/s00204-019-02501-x. 

Abstract. There is considerable interest in adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) as a means of organizing biological and toxicological information to assist in data interpretation and method development. While several chemical sectors have shown considerable progress in applying this approach, this has not been the case in the food sector. In the present study, safety evaluation reports of food additives listed in Annex II of Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 of the European Union were screened to qualitatively and quantitatively characterize toxicity induced in laboratory animals. The resulting database was used to identify the critical adverse effects used for risk assessment and to investigate whether food additives share common AOPs. Analysis of the database revealed that often such scrutiny of AOPs was not possible or necessary. For 69% of the food additives, the report did not document any adverse effects in studies based on which the safety evaluation was performed. For the remaining 31% of the 326 investigated food additives, critical adverse effects and related points of departure for establishing health-based guidance values could be identified. These mainly involved effects on the liver, kidney, cardiovascular system, lymphatic system, central nervous system and reproductive system. AOPs are available for many of these apical endpoints, albeit to different degrees of maturity. For other adverse outcomes pertinent to food additives, including gastrointestinal irritation and corrosion, AOPs are lacking. Efforts should focus on developing AOPs for these particular endpoints.