Composition of some commercially available biscuits

Twenty five brands of glucose biscuits and seven other varieties of biscuits were analysed for moisture, fat, proteins, total sugars, ash, peroxide value, free fatty acids, sodium, potassium, calcium, iron, manganese, copper and zinc concentrations. Total sugars in glucose biscuits varied from 23.25-31.25% whereas in other varieties, it varied from 17.26-40.42%. Protein content varied between 5.46-8.9%. The concentrations of sodium, potassium, iron and calcium ranged between 800-4950 mg/kg, 450-1720 mg/kg, 38-230 mg/kg and 120-1800 mg/kg, respectively. Differen-ces in the levels of copper, manganese and zinc were not large, ranging between 1-7 mg/kg, 3.5-10.4 mg/kg and 8.2-25.5 mg/kg respectively. Peroxide value and free fatty acids are known to change during storage. The brands having very low fat levels (<5%) invariably had very high peroxide and free fatty acid values. Total fat contents in various biscuits ranged between 1 and 24.6%, while total energy values ranged between 365 and 501 K calories.