Flavoring Agents and Disinfection of Water

The effect of flavoring agents containing chemicals, such as ascorbic acid, NutraSweet, saccharin, citric acid, and tannic acid (in tea mixes) on the disinfection, by iodine, of small quantities of water is studied experimentally. It is found that ascorbic acid and tannic acid react with I2 in less than 0.2 s to form non-germicidal I- ions. Thus, the addition of flavoring agents is recommended only after disinfection by iodine is considered to be sufficiently complete. The heating of iodinated water to remove dissolved iodine and thereby render it more palatable is also studied and found to be ineffective.