Hi bucket, I have a few questions. You said:
sodium benzodite or citric acid. sodium benzodite mix at 1:32 parts or citric acid at 1:512 would keep syrups from going bad
First off, I am wondering if you meant sodium benzoate, I have never heard of sodium benzodite. I would have assumed it was just a typo, but you typed benzodite twice. Is there such a thing?
Then you gave the ratios, but failed to mention of that is by weight or volume. Which is it?
If you were talking about sodium benzoate, I read that the max dosage is .1% by weight (limited by the FDA), and a 1:32 ratio by weight or volume, would be way off. Sodium benzoate usually comes in a solution I think, the source I looked at sold it in 25% solution. In that case, a liter of liquid (specific garvity of 1.0) would have 4 CCs or 4 grams of sodium benzoate, which is a ratio of 250:1. Thirty two to one would seem to be about 8 times the maximum dosage.
Now, I admit that I have no idea what I am talking about so take all of this with a grain of salt ( we need to do our own research and not just take others words for it). That being said, I do not know how to implement these dosages into practicality. I believe the dosage as I specified it above, is intended to be the ratio in the final food product (not in a flavor concentrat for example. Now, here is why that might be important, at least this is my thinking. I assume that that ratio is sufficient to act as a preservative. That should be true (I think) whether that is in a flavor concentrate, or the final product (soda), though I am not positive of that. Since the preservative is is working to protect ingedients from spoiling, and water does not spoil, can it be that you can dose the concentrate at that ratio and not add more when it is diluted with water? Just a question. It is possible that that concentration needs to be in the final product (my guess) in order to be sufficent to offer protection.
Also, since sodium benzoate and vitamin C form benzine ( a carcinogin ) being carefull with concentrations is a good idea. Health is an issue when messing with chemicals, so let's be careful.
I also read that for Sodium Benzoate to be effective, it has to be in an acidic substance, that may be why citric acid is added to foods (besides the flavor). Even though acids have their own preservatice powers, they might be present to make the sodium benzoate effective.
As little as I know about sodium benzoate ( and nothing about sodium benzodite ), I know less about citric acid. So I will not question the dosage you suggested there.
Thoughts?