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Glite Dictionary
🧲 Absorbed substance 🥫 Food preservative
sorbate

sorbate

7.0
A substance made from sorbic acid used to stop food from spoiling
  • noun
  • /ˈsɔrˌbeɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : sorbato
  • Many baked goods contain sorbate as a preservative to prevent mold growth.

Examples

  • In contrast to previous teachings, Cohen discovered that he can include antimicrobial agents like potassium sorbate or streptomycin in the diet without harm to the insects being mass-reared.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Potassium sorbate is widely used in the food industry to extend the shelf life of products.

  • You can find sorbate listed among the ingredients on the packaging of many processed foods.

Synonyms

preservative
vssorbate
24 3.7

A substance added to food or wood to stop decay

is a specific chemical type used mainly for food preservation

Surface Forms

sorbate singular
sorbates plural

Morphology

sorbate = sorb (semi-transparent) = sorb + ate

The suffix '-ate' denotes salts/esters of an acid in chemical nomenclature; the morphological relation is regular for chemistry but requires domain knowledge of 'sorbic acid' and chemical naming.

Etymology

The word sorbate comes from sorbic (as in sorbic acid), which was named after the Latin Sorbus 'rowan tree' because the acid was first found in its berries. So a sorbate like potassium sorbate is a salt or ester of that acid used to stop food from going bad.