# Nutritional Quality and Safety Characteristics of Imported Biscuits Markered in Basrah, Iraq
## 3 Results and Discussion
### HMF and AA Content of Biscuits Samples
Overall, the HMF content determined in the examined bisciuits was consistent with the findings of [PERSON] et al. [51], who found HMF ranging from 0.5 mg/kg to 78.6 mg/kg in bisciuits marketed in France, and [PERSON] et al. [52], who ascertained amounts of HMF ranging from 1.65 mg/kg to 82.78 mg/kg. Results for AA paralleled those of HMF being both AA and HMF contaminants of thermal origin [4]. Extremely high variability was observed also for the AA content among samples within the same category or country. This variability ranged from ND to 1421.7 ug/kg, making not significant the influence of the \"Biscuit type\" and \"Country\" variables, as well as the effect of the \"Biscuit type\"Country\" interaction. Differences in raw material composition, such as free asparagine and reducing sugar content, food product compositions, processing techniques, and parameters such as water content, high temperature (more than 120 \({}^{\circ}\)C), and time could be the sources of variation in AA levels, as reported in other studies [4, 53]. [PERSON] et al. [22] discovered that the AA concentration of biscuits containing dietary fiber was greater than that of regular biscuits (261-486 ug/kg) and for crackers values ranged from (30-582 ug/kg) [54]. This might be explained by the presence of asparagine, the primary precursor of acrylamide in cereal products (concentrated in the bran, particularly in wheat bran). Corn and rice, on the other hand, are known to be grains with low asparagine content, which supports a low AA generation in these biscuits [55]. Furthermore, [PERSON] et al. [56] demonstrated that the concentration of AA in biscuits produced with different leavening agents, namely ammonium bicarbonate or sodium bicarbonate, differed. Another source of variation might be the type of sugar utilized, which have an important influence on the synthesis and concentration of acrylamide. According \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Biscuit Type** & **HMF (mg/kg)** & **AA (ug/kg)** \\ \hline BSD1-I & \(4.68\pm 0.08\) & ND \\ BSD2-I & \(17.14\pm 1.08\) & \(273.6\pm 2.6\) \\ BSD3-I & \(17.31\pm 1.09\) & \(315.7\pm 3.1\) \\ BSD1-U & \(32.10\pm 2.21\) & \(604.7\pm 3.6\) \\ BSD2-U & \(5.64\pm 0.94\) & ND \\ BSD3-U & \(30.81\pm 2.11\) & \(597.8\pm 4.0\) \\ BSD1-T & \(3.96\pm 0.94\) & ND \\ BSD2-T & \(6.37\pm 0.86\) & ND \\ BSD3-T & ND & ND \\ Mean cookies & \(11.15\pm 16.09\) & \(202.9\pm 341.8\) \\ Mean crackers & \(22.64\pm 10.45\) & \(372.3\pm 257.1\) \\ Mean digestive & \(10.91\pm 8.08\) & \(167.9\pm 216.1\) \\ Mean Spain & \(3.92\pm 7.14\) & \(52.1\pm 103.6\) \\ Mean Iran & \(23.87\pm 20.52\) & \(371.6\pm 107.9\) \\ Mean UAE & \(20.21\pm 26.37\) & \(370.2\pm 287.3\) \\ Mean Turkey & \(11.61\pm 25.31\) & \(198.7\pm 245.4\) \\ EU Limit (Reg. 2017/2158) & - & \textless{}350 \\ \multicolumn{2}{c}{Significance of variables and interactions} \\ \multicolumn{2}{c}{“Biscuit type”} & NS \\ \multicolumn{2}{c}{“Country”} & NS \\ \multicolumn{2}{c}{“Biscuit type”Country”} & NS \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\begin{tabular}{c} BSC: cookie; BSD: digestive; BSC: cracker; S = made in Spain; I = made in Iran; U = made in the United Arab Emirates; T = made in Turkey; ND = not detected; NS: Not significant. Values are expressed as mean \(\pm\) standard deviation (\(n\) = 3). \\ \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: _Cont._to Ramadan [57], substituting inverted sugar with sucrose in wheat crackers lowered the AA content by 60%. Our findings were comparable to those of a Swedish study of the AA content in cookies/biscuits/wafers (300 and 230 ug/kg, respectively), and a prospective study on Italian biscuits (200-298 ug/kg) [58; 59]. The results were in the same order of magnitude as those reported by [PERSON] et al. [60] for traditional Belgian biscuits (range 20-1514 ug/kg) and, more recently, by [PERSON] et al. [61] for Syrian corn/wheat-based biscuits (range 57-1433 ug/kg).