Food-grade CO₂: what ISBT and EIGA actually require
Purity percentage tells you almost nothing on its own. What matters is the list of trace contaminants and the limit set against each one.
A supplier quoting 99.9% purity has told you nothing useful. The remaining 0.1% is exactly where the risk lives, and both ISBT and EIGA define limits per contaminant rather than a single headline number.
The parameters that matter
Oxygen, moisture, total hydrocarbons, acetaldehyde, benzene, sulphur compounds and ammonia. For beverage carbonation, benzene and acetaldehyde are the ones that get suppliers disqualified.
What to ask a supplier for
A certificate of analysis for the actual batch, not a type-test from three years ago. Ask which parameters are measured online and which are sent to a lab — the difference tells you how quickly a deviation would be caught.
Frequently asked questions
Is ISBT or EIGA stricter?
They overlap heavily. ISBT is written for the beverage industry and is tighter on flavour-affecting traces; EIGA covers a broader industrial scope.
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