Quality of Some Food Products Based on Food Additives and Contaminants

The controlling agencies of food have a great role in insuring the safety and quality of foods for consumer protection. The presence of food additives in different kinds of food is quite obvious nowadays. The food additives are usually used to serve many technical purposes i.e. elongation the shelf life and/or improving the physicochemical properties of foods. However, the consumption of un-permitted and permitted additives in excessive quantities may pose long-term health effect. In the light of the present study of the status of different food stuffs present in local Libyan market and delivered from the Eastern border, data showed that most food additives used were sulfure dioxide and sodium benzoate. The obtained results also indicated an extensive use of artificialcolouringsubstaneswithoutmentioningtheirpresencesonthelabels.Some samples showed the presence of aflatoxinsspeciallyinlegumesamples.Theresultsalsoindicatedthat some samples contained heavy metals at concentrations higher than the acceptable ranges.