Good morning everyone,

As you already know, recently the attention on Ethylene oxide (ETO) and its by-product 2-chloroethanol (2-CE) has been continuously growing. I'm fully aware of the analysis that can be performed to quantify these substances.

However, I'm constantly struggling to know more about the ETO and 2-CE occurrence in food matrices where these compounds should not be present. As an example, is quietly spread the presence of relatively low amount of 2-CE in food hydrocolloids, especially gums which during their production are treated with ethanol and other complex processes (fermentation, heat treatment, etc.).

Based on your expertise do you think it would be possible that 2-chloroethanol might be formed during the addition of ethanol for the precipitation of the gum?

The strange thing is that a little amount of 2-CE occurs in xanthan gum precipitated with ethanol, but not when the same product is precipitated with isopropyl alcohol.