Sulfites in sun-dried tomatoes

[Shankar Bhattacharyya]

I thought this might interest a few people.

Now and then we test a sample or two of sun-dried tomatoes for sulfites. We
usually find a fair bit - you don't get bright red sun-dried tomatoes on
the strength of virtue alone.

Anyway, we analayzed a sample today that had over 6000 ppm sulfur dioxide,
and the Italian supplier had sent it in as a "low sulfite" lot. So either
they have mixed their lots up, or else they have truly miserable quality
control in their production. That's the highest level of sulfite I have
ever seen in anything that claimed to be edible.

So I popped the container open and took a sniff. There was enough sulfur
dioxide in the headspace to leave a characteristic taste in my throat for a
while.

Dried fruit often contains between 2000 and 3500 ppm sulfite, but 6000 ppm
is silly.

- Shankar

[Tom Crawley]

sbha...@db.GBA.NYU.EDU (Shankar Bhattacharyya) writes:

>I thought this might interest a few people.

>Now and then we test a sample or two of sun-dried tomatoes for sulfites. We
>usually find a fair bit - you don't get bright red sun-dried tomatoes on
>the strength of virtue alone.

So for sun dried tomatoes, is there any way of telling (semi-)reliably the
concentration of sulphites from the colour (eg. glowing red == avoid :-)?
Or concentration vs cost (persuming cost is proportional to quality)?

>Anyway, we analayzed a sample today that had over 6000 ppm sulfur dioxide,
>and the Italian supplier had sent it in as a "low sulfite" lot. So either
>they have mixed their lots up, or else they have truly miserable quality
>control in their production. That's the highest level of sulfite I have
>ever seen in anything that claimed to be edible.

I have never seen this labelled in Australia. Does this mean the supplier
has clues to the concentration?

[Shankar Bhattacharyya]

In article <tomc.746423586@osi> to...@osi.curtin.edu.au (Tom Crawley) writes:

About sun-dried tomatoes:

>So for sun dried tomatoes, is there any way of telling (semi-)reliably the
>concentration of sulphites from the colour (eg. glowing red == avoid :-)?
>Or concentration vs cost (persuming cost is proportional to quality)?

Regrettably, the answer is "No". If you see a sufficiently large range of
dried tomatoes, and have them tested, you might be able to arrive at some
very approximate judgment. But I would hate to have to sign my name to
that. With reasonable exposure, you could probably tell "very high" from
"very low", or "at least a fair bit" from "none".

All the dried tomatoes I've seen analyzed have been fairly high in
sulfites, which, I suppose, is why we get them at the lab. So I don't have
a meaningful range of values on which to base my judgment, anyway.

>I have never seen this labelled in Australia. Does this mean the supplier
>has clues to the concentration?

Maybe. In many cases, sulfiting is done by burning sulfur in a closed room.
I have trouble believing that this is a procedure that gives you a lot of
control, but I'm told that there are practical skills to doing this.

In any case, I would be surprised if the Australian laws did not require
that the sulfites at least be mentioned in the list of ingredients. What
your E number for sulfites is, I haven't a clue.

- Shankar