← Clean Food Score

BHA, BHT, TBHQ & Sodium Benzoate: Food Preservatives Explained (2026)

October 17, 2026 · 8 min

Chapters

  1. The Short Answer
  2. Two Jobs, Two Teams
  3. B H A and B H T
  4. T B H Q
  5. Sodium Benzoate and the Vitamin C Note
  6. Bread's Preservative
  7. What the Research Says
  8. Where the Rules Stand
  9. The Ten-Second Label Check
  10. Labels Without Them
  11. Your Turn

Audio from the Clean Food Score video of the same name; the video shows the labels and scores on screen.

BHA, BHT, TBHQ and sodium benzoate keep food on the shelf for months. We explain what each one does, where they hide (cereal liners, bread, soda), what the research and the FDA's new reviews say as of October 2026, and how to spot them in ten seconds.

Full guide and the products we checked
Check any ingredient list free

Chapters
0:00 The Short Answer
0:46 Two Jobs, Two Teams
1:25 B H A and B H T
2:18 T B H Q
2:58 Sodium Benzoate and the Vitamin C Note
3:57 Bread's Preservative
4:46 What the Research Says
5:40 Where the Rules Stand
6:37 The Ten-Second Label Check
7:21 Labels Without Them
8:07 Your Turn

Product scores are Clean Food Score's 0–100 label scores as shown on cleanfoodscore.com on 2026-10-16. Recipes change, so read the package you buy. We read labels; this is not medical advice.

Music
"Reminiscing" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

"Almost Bliss" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

"Disquiet" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

"Carefree" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Sound effects: Kenney (kenney.nl), CC0.

#bht #preservatives #foodlabels