SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC TECHNIQUES USED FOR MONITORING FOOD ADDITIVES – AN OVERVIEW |
SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC TECHNIQUES USED FOR MONITORING FOOD ADDITIVES – AN OVERVIEW
Violeta Niculescu*, Irina Geană, Nadia Păun, Roxana Ionete, Diana Stegăruş
National Research and Development Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies - ICSI Rm. Valcea,
Uzinei Street no. 4, P.O. Box Râureni 7, 240050, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania
ABSTRACT
Development in food science and technology from the last five decades led to the discovery of new compounds with various features. Among them are the additives, substances intentionally added in foodstuffs to perform certain technological functions (i.e. to colour, to sweeten or to preserve). EU legislation stipulates that food containing a level of additive hat is unacceptable from a public health viewpoint cannot be put on the market. There is a need for analytical techniques to identify and quantify additives, because the food industry is required to list the type and amount of each ingredient on product labels to help consumers make dietary choices and manage allergies. The analytical tools include UV-VIS spectroscopy method to simultaneously test widely used additives. This study offers some conclusions about the feasibility of the analytical tools, based on their performance characteristics and potential gaps.
Keywords: additives, food, monitoring, spectrophotometry. _________________________ *Corresponding author: Violeta Niculescu, phone: 0250.732.744; fax: 0250.732.746; E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |