Food additivies are intensively used in foods to enhance keeping quality, nutritional and technological characteristics. In Palestine, students of universities are highly depending on processed foods and junck foods in their diet. The aim of this study is to evaluate the intake of food additivies among university students. In this study, 40 students through food diaries recorded all food additivies written on food label for all comusmed food products during two weeks. It was found that the highly consumed foods were processed corn and potato chips which represented about 15.8% followed by soft drinks which represented 10.9% of total consumed processed foods. Total types of additives intake (with E-number) was 34.5 additives/2weeks/person or 2.5 additives/day/person. The highest additives intake was for additives have E400-499 (thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers) which contributed 27.3% of total additivies intake. The inatke of coloring agents (E100-199), preservatives (E200-299), antioxidants and acidity regulators (E300-399) were 10.2%, 20.2%, and 23.7%, respectively. Overall findings showed that food additives intake was very high among university students. Moreover, food containing high number of food additives was very poor in nutrient density. In conclusion, university students depends highly in their diet on food containing high number of synthetic food additives and high caloric content.

Conference Title

International Baku Scientific Research Congress

Conference Country

Azerbaijan

Conference Date

Oct. 15, 2021 - Oct. 16, 2021

Conference Sponsor

Baku University

Additional Info

Conference Website