Determining The Residual Aluminum and Zinc in Food Wrapped by Aluminum Foil (Sandwich Samples) Collected from Some Restaurants in El Bayda City, Libya

Abstract

The wrapping of foods with aluminum foil may cause the transfer of some elements presence in the foil as Aluminum (Al), Zinc (Zn), which are found in high concentrations in this foil. At high concentrations, these elements may be toxic to human health. The main problem of these elements is, they are not. This study aims to estimate Aluminum and Zinc in some sandwich samples collected from Libyan restaurants in El-Bayda city. Ten samples of different types of wrapped sandwiches by aluminum foil were studied in this investigation, the selected metal contents were measured by the atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) method. The samples were designed by nitric acid. The results of this study recorded that the concentrations of aluminum and zinc ranged between (0.012 – 0.079 ppm) and (4.35 -10.93 ppm), respectively. The study did not record high variations between the studied samples in their contents of heavy metals. Some of the samples contained higher levels of Aluminum compared to the levels recommended by WHO