Haider et al. 2022 — Nutritional quality and safety of imported biscuits marketed in Basrah, Iraq

This peer-reviewed MDPI Applied Sciences study analyzed 36 imported biscuit samples (three types: cookies, crackers, and digestives) purchased in Basrah city markets, Iraq, from four countries of origin: Spain, Iran, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Nine brands were collected per country of origin, three replicates per sample, sampled July–November 2021. The work measured nutritional composition (moisture, ash, fat, protein, fiber, carbohydrates), food safety parameters (water activity, peroxide value, HMF, acrylamide), heavy metals (Pb, Cd) and trace elements (Zn, Cu), and microbiological load. Cadmium was entirely absent across all 36 samples and all three biscuit types; lead was detected in all samples but remained considerably below the EU Regulation 1881/2006 limit of 200 µg/kg, with Spanish-origin biscuits showing the lowest lead values and Iranian biscuits the highest. Acrylamide content exceeded the EU limit of 350 µg/kg in multiple non-EU-origin samples, and yeasts and molds exceeded FAO/WHO limits in five samples, pointing to food safety concerns beyond heavy metals for biscuits in this market.

Key numbers

Heavy metals and trace elements are summarized in Table 4 of the paper. Pb and Cd are reported in µg/kg; Zn and Cu in mg/kg. Pb mean values per category and per country of origin are below.

Lead (Pb) by biscuit type, µg/kg:

• Cookies, range across 12 samples: 2.07–14.27; mean cookies: 8.11 ± 3.98
• Crackers, range across 12 samples: 3.18–29.97; mean crackers: 11.24 ± 7.12
• Digestives, range across 12 samples: 2.75–24.29; mean digestives: 11.27 ± 6.67

Lead (Pb) by country of origin, µg/kg:

• Spain: 3.12 ± 0.81
• Iran: 15.35 ± 2.25
• UAE: 8.13 ± 3.04
• Turkey: 14.34 ± 1.13

Highest single sample Pb: BSCr1-I (cracker, Iran) at 29.97 ± 0.16 µg/kg. All 36 samples are below the EU 1881/2006 maximum level of 200 µg/kg for cereals (the limit the authors apply, since no biscuit-specific cereal limit exists). Country effect significant (p < 0.05); biscuit type and biscuit-type × country interaction not significant.

Cadmium (Cd): Not detected (ND) in any of the 36 samples across all three biscuit types and all four country origins. Authors note this is consistent with prior findings from India and Greece; Egyptian biscuits have been reported at up to 0.12 mg/kg in a separate study (Salama and Radwan 2005).

Zinc (Zn), mg/kg: range 1.46–14.36 across all 36 samples; mean per category 6.12–9.61; not significantly influenced by biscuit type, country, or interaction.

Copper (Cu), mg/kg: range 1.41–9.46 across all 36 samples; mean per category 3.31–4.41; not significantly influenced by biscuit type, country, or interaction.

Acrylamide (AA), µg/kg; EU limit 350 µg/kg per Reg. 2017/2158 for cookies and wafers:

• Range across all samples: ND to 1421.7 ± 5.7 (BSC2-U, cookie, UAE)
• Mean cookies: 202.9 ± 341.8; mean crackers: 372.3 ± 257.1; mean digestives: 167.9 ± 216.1
• Mean by origin: Spain 52.1 ± 103.6; Iran 371.6 ± 107.9; UAE 370.2 ± 287.3; Turkey 198.7 ± 245.4
• All Spanish-origin samples met the 350 µg/kg EU limit; multiple Iranian, UAE, and Turkish samples substantially exceeded it (next-highest single sample after BSC2-U was BSCr1-I cracker, Iran, 1061.9 ± 6.1).

HMF, mg/kg: range ND to 62.08 ± 3.11 (BSC2-U, UAE); extreme within-category variability that was not significantly influenced by biscuit type, country, or their interaction. Authors attribute variation primarily to baking temperature, sweetener type (sucrose vs. invert sugar / glucose-fructose), and the presence of ammonium bicarbonate as leavening agent.

Nutritional composition (Table 1): Fat content ranged 6.52–26.86 g/100 g; protein 2.06–13.54 g/100 g; moisture 1.42–2.52 g/100 g (all below 4.5 g/100 g WHO/FAO limit); ash 0.48–3.19 g/100 g (all below 3.5 g/100 g FAO/WHO limit); fiber 0.11–1.51 g/100 g; carbohydrates 61.12–79.88 g/100 g. Significant labeling inaccuracies were found: in 25 of 36 samples the labeled fat content was lower than the analytically determined value, with the largest single-sample fat discrepancy reaching 622% in BSCr1-U (UAE cracker; D=18.05, L=2.5 g/100 g per Table 1) and the largest single-sample protein discrepancy reaching 577% in the same BSCr1-U sample (D=13.54, L=2.1 g/100 g per Table 1). The source’s body text on page 7 misattributes these extremes to “BSD1-U” (a UAE digestive); Table 1 is authoritative and places both extremes on BSCr1-U (Table 1 BSD1-U row shows fat Δ%=219 and protein Δ%=240, not 622% and 577%).

Microbial load (Table 5), log cfu/g: Total plate count 2.13–4.11; Staphylococcus aureus ND to 1.34 with several samples above the FAO/WHO acceptable limit of 1 log cfu/g; yeasts and molds 1.49–1.81 mean per category with five samples above the FAO/WHO limit of 2 log cfu/g; Salmonella absent in all 36 samples; Bacillus spp. ND to 1.38; no growth of coliforms or E. coli.

Methods (brief)

Atomic absorption spectrometry and flame photometry (Biotech Engineering Management Co. Ltd., Nicosia, Cyprus) for Pb, Cd, Zn, and Cu, following AOAC method 965.09. Sample preparation for heavy metals: 1 g of ground biscuit was mixed with 12 mL HNO₃ in a digesting glass tube and kept overnight at room temperature, then treated with 4 mL HClO₄ and heated in the fume block from 50°C up to 250–300°C; the digest was transferred to a 100 mL volumetric flask and made to volume with distilled water. Three replicates per sample. HMF determined by HPLC (Sykam S 1130, Germany; UV/VIS detector at 285 nm; Arcus Ep-C18 column 4.6 × 250 mm, 5 µm; mobile phase water/acetonitrile 90:10 isocratic). Acrylamide by HPLC (Cecil-Adept binary pump with Dynamic Absorbance detector, Sykam S 1130 injector; Arcus Ep-C18 column; mobile phase acetonitrile/water 20:80 v/v; flow 1 mL/min; UV at 225 nm; column oven 40°C; 10 µL injection). Microbiological analyses by standard culture methods (nutrient agar for TPC, MSA for S. aureus, MacConkey for E. coli/coliforms, tetrathionate/Rappaport-Vassiliadis enrichment and Salmonella-Shigella agar for Salmonella, mannitol-egg yolk-polymyxin (MYP) agar for Bacillus, potato dextrose agar for yeasts/molds). Statistical analysis by two-way ANOVA (biscuit type × country) with Tukey HSD post-hoc, SPSS 13.

Limitations relevant to downstream use:

• Pb and Cd are the only heavy metals measured. As, Hg, Ni, Cr, Sn, Al, and Sb are not addressed; this paper therefore contributes to Pb and Cd evidence only for the snacks/biscuits product category and cannot speak to the rest of the HMTc analyte list.
• LOD/LOQ are not reported. Cadmium is consistently ND but the detection threshold for that “ND” verdict cannot be reconstructed from the paper.
• The sampling window is short (July–November 2021) and reflects the Basrah market in one specific period; seasonal variation in raw-material sourcing is not captured.
• Only imported biscuits are sampled — domestically produced Iraqi biscuits are not represented.

Implications

Certification. Pb across all 36 imported biscuit samples ranges 2.07–29.97 µg/kg, with category means 8.11–11.27 µg/kg and country means 3.12–15.35 µg/kg. Cd is uniformly ND. These values sit below the EU 1881/2006 cereal-grain ceiling (200 µg/kg Pb, 100 µg/kg Cd) and below the older USFDA 1 mg/kg “candy likely consumed by children” benchmark that the source itself references. This source contributes Pb and Cd occurrence data for the wheat-flour-based snacks-crackers-biscuits and bread-and-baked-goods product categories in the Iraqi import market over July–November 2021. Cross-product or cross-ingredient synthesis (e.g., how this dataset compares to rice-, cocoa-, or root-vegetable-based snack literature) is the responsibility of the synthesis pass at the ingredient and product-category page level, not this source page. The acrylamide and microbial findings are outside HMTc’s current analyte vocabulary but are safety-relevant for the snacks-crackers-biscuits and bread-and-baked-goods product categories.

Courses. Useful case study for a module on imported food safety in developing-country markets, illustrating that conventional heavy metal limits may be met while other safety parameters (acrylamide, microbial load, label accuracy) are not. The 622% fat-label discrepancy and 577% protein-label discrepancy in BSCr1-U (UAE cracker) are striking concrete examples for a labeling-integrity lecture.

App. This source supports a low-Pb-risk flag for biscuits and crackers made from wheat flour. The universal Cd-ND result across all 36 samples (consistent with prior Indian and Greek literature) supports a “low risk, data-gap-absent” status for Cd in this product category rather than a zero-risk claim, because LOD/LOQ are not reported.

Microbiome. Not addressed.

Verification notes

• Merge-enhance ingest 2026-05-20 from the original 2026-05-13 page (pre-2026-05-14 schema): re-read the PDF in full and reconciled every numerical claim on this page against Tables 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 plus the §3.4 Heavy Metals discussion.
• Frontmatter changes: replaced [[ingredients/wheat-flour]] with [[ingredients/wheat]] — wheat-flour is not a slug in the current ingredient taxonomy; wheat is the canonical page and lists “wheat flour” among its aliases. The two product slugs (snacks-crackers-biscuits, bread-and-baked-goods) are unchanged and remain valid. Added near_duplicates: []. Updated updated: to 2026-05-20.
• Numerical reconciliation: all Pb means (8.11, 11.24, 11.27 µg/kg by category; 3.12, 15.35, 8.13, 14.34 µg/kg by country), the BSCr1-I maximum of 29.97 µg/kg, the AA category means (202.9, 372.3, 167.9 µg/kg), the AA country means (52.1, 371.6, 370.2, 198.7 µg/kg), and the BSC2-U cookie/UAE peak of 1421.7 µg/kg AA were re-verified against Tables 3 and 4. The previous version’s “1,421.7” abstract note is reconciled with Table 3’s value of 1421.7 ± 5.7 (the paper’s abstract uses “1421.8” rounding; Table 3 is authoritative at 1421.7).
• Numerical reconciliation continued: added standard deviations to the per-category and per-country Pb means (matching Table 4) so downstream synthesis has the dispersion, not just the central tendency.
• Brand-firewall (Part 12): the paper identifies samples only by anonymized codes (BSC, BSD, BSCr × country letter × replicate). No trade names appear in the source body for the 36 samples, so no brand redaction is needed on this page. Supplementary Table S1 (not present in the main PDF) is referenced as containing the “Coding, net weight and list of ingredients” of all 36 samples; if any brand names appear in S1, they are not propagated here.
• Removed the legacy ## Wiki pages updated on ingest heading per the current source-page schema; routing to metals/Pb, metals/Cd, ingredients/wheat, products/snacks-crackers-biscuits, products/bread-and-baked-goods, and regulations/eu-1881-2006 is handled via frontmatter and the routing-audit pipeline.
• Limitation paragraph: rewritten to be explicit about which HMTc analytes are not addressed (As, Hg, Ni, Cr, Sn, Al, Sb), about the absence of LOD/LOQ, and about the single-market / single-window sampling design.
• Acrylamide and HMF results are retained on the page even though they are outside the HMTc analyte vocabulary, because they are integral to the paper’s safety conclusions and a future course or risk-communication asset on the snacks/biscuits category will want them traceable to a peer-reviewed source.
• Audit subagent (2026-05-20) flagged the 622% fat and 577% protein label-discrepancy extremes as misattributed to BSD1-U (UAE digestive); verified against Table 1 of the PDF — both extremes belong to BSCr1-U (UAE cracker; fat D=18.05, L=2.5, Δ%=622; protein D=13.54, L=2.1, Δ%=577). The source’s page-7 body text contradicts its own Table 1 on the sample ID. The wiki page now follows Table 1 (authoritative) and adds an explicit footnote noting the source-internal inconsistency. Corrections applied in both the Key numbers paragraph and the Courses-Implications paragraph.
• Audit subagent (2026-05-20) flagged the Certification-Implications cross-source synthesis sentence (“consistent with the working expectation that wheat-flour-derived baked goods carry lower Pb and Cd burdens than rice-based, cocoa-based, or root-vegetable-based products”) as belonging at the synthesis-pass layer rather than on a source page (CLAUDE.md Part 9). Verified — the comparison imports knowledge the paper itself does not produce (the paper does not measure rice, cocoa, or root vegetables). Sentence trimmed; replaced with an explicit statement that cross-ingredient synthesis is the synthesis pass’s responsibility.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.