Is Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate Safe in Food?

Many of us have had the experience of looking at a nutrition label and hardly even recognizing the ingredients.

You might have seen one such ingredient popping up frequently — sodium acid pyrophosphate, often called SAPP — and wondered what its function is, as well as whether it’s safe to consume.

The good news is that, consumed in modest amounts, chemicals like SAPP are completely safe. However, as is the case with most preservatives, there are some risks and caveats, especially for people with kidney problems.

Here’s everything you need to know about SAPP.

There’s an entire category of preservatives called phosphates, which contain some derivative of the mineral phosphorus. SAPP is part of that category, but not all phosphates do the same thing.

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Organic foods that are locally sourced have the lowest chance of containing preservatives, because the shorter the distance your food has to travel, the fewer preservatives it typically needs. Speak to a local farmer, farm stand store, and butcher about their products before making your purchase.

Kayli Anderson has over a decade of experience in nutrition, culinary education, and lifestyle medicine. She believes that eating well should be simple, pleasurable, and sustainable. Anderson has worked with clients from all walks of life, but she currently specializes in nutrition therapy and lifestyle medicine for women. She’s the founder of PlantBasedMavens.com, a hub for women to get evidence-based, practical, and woman-centered guidance on nutrition and cooking, hormone health, fertility, pregnancy, movement, mental well-being, nontoxic living, and more.

Anderson is board-certified in lifestyle medicine and serves as lead faculty of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s (ACLM) "Food as Medicine" course. She is past chair of the ACLM's registered dietitian member interest group, secretary of the women's health member interest group, and nutrition faculty for many of ACLM's other course offerings. She is the coauthor of the Plant-Based Nutrition Quick Start Guide and works with many of the leading organizations in nutrition and lifestyle medicine to develop nutrition content, recipes, and educational programs.

Anderson frequently speaks on the topics of women’s health and plant-based nutrition and has coauthored two lifestyle medicine textbooks, including the first one on women’s health, Improving Women's Health Across the Lifespan.

She received a master's degree in nutrition and physical performance and is certified as an exercise physiologist and intuitive eating counselor. She's a student of herbal medicine and women's integrative and functional medicine. She lives with her husband in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where you’ll find her out on a trail or in her garden.