# Nutritional Quality and Safety Characteristics of Imported Biscuits Markered in Basrah, Iraq
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Water Activity and Peroxide Value  
The water activity of the evaluated biscuits was in the range of 0.21-0.49, without a significant effect by the variables \"Biscuit type\" and \"Country\" or by their first-order interaction (Table 2). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Biscuit Type** & **Water Activity** & **Peroxide Value (meq O\({}_{2}\)/kg Fat)** \\ \hline Cookies & & \\ BSC1-S & 0.29 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.66 \(\pm\) 0.08 \\ BSC2-S & 0.38 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 1.75 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ BSC3-S & 0.35 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 2.25 \(\pm\) 0.11 \\ BSC1-I & 0.28 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 1.41 \(\pm\) 0.08 \\ BSC2-I & 0.21 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.81 \(\pm\) 0.07 \\ BSC3-I & 0.31 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.55 \(\pm\) 0.05 \\ BSC1-U & 0.36 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 2.05 \(\pm\) 0.12 \\ BSC2-U & 0.27 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 1.57 \(\pm\) 0.11 \\ BSC3-U & 0.36 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.11 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ BSC1-T & 0.22 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 1.45 \(\pm\) 0.08 \\ BSC2-T & 0.29 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.91 \(\pm\) 0.11 \\ BSC3-T & 0.39 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 2.15 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ Crackers & & \\ BSC1-S & 0.33 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.92 \(\pm\) 0.08 \\ BSCr2-S & 0.34 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 1.53 \(\pm\) 0.04 \\ BSCr3-S & 0.37 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 1.59 \(\pm\) 0.05 \\ BSCr1-I & 0.32 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 1.25 \(\pm\) 0.06 \\ BSCr2-I & 0.27 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 1.55 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ BSCr3-I & 0.41 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 1.78 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ BSCr1-U & 0.29 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 0.96 \(\pm\) 0.04 \\ BSCr2-U & 0.42 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.04 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ BSCr3-U & 0.39 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.32 \(\pm\) 0.02 \\ BSCr1-T & 0.21 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.46 \(\pm\) 0.03 \\ BSCr2-T & 0.28 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 0.31 \(\pm\) 0.05 \\ BSCr3-T & 0.31 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 0.23 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ Digestives & & \\ BSD1-S & 0.32 \(\pm\) 0.03 & 1.11 \(\pm\) 0.05 \\ BSD2-S & 0.39 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.61 \(\pm\) 0.11 \\ BSD3-S & 0.34 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 1.69 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ BSD1-I & 0.26 \(\pm\) 0.03 & 1.79 \(\pm\) 0.11 \\ BSD2-I & 0.29 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.83 \(\pm\) 0.04 \\ BSD3-I & 0.28 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.57 \(\pm\) 0.12 \\ BSD1-U & 0.39 \(\pm\) 0.03 & 0.94 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ BSD2-U & 0.27 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.35 \(\pm\) 0.08 \\ BSD3-U & 0.42 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 1.21 \(\pm\) 0.13 \\ BSD1-T & 0.48 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 0.81 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ BSD2-T & 0.41 \(\pm\) 0.03 & 0.57 \(\pm\) 0.06 \\ BSD3-T & 0.39 \(\pm\) 0.03 & 0.78 \(\pm\) 0.03 \\ Mean cookies & 0.38 \(\pm\) 0.11 & 1.72 \(\pm\) 0.06 \\ Mean crackers & 0.32 \(\pm\) 0.09 & 1.07 \(\pm\) 0.03 \\ Mean digestive & 0.35 \(\pm\) 0.08 & 1.18 \(\pm\) 0.04 \\ Mean Spain & 0.34 \(\pm\) 0.07 & 1.56 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ Mean Iran & 0.29 \(\pm\) 0.05 & 0.88 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ Mean UAE & 0.35 \(\pm\) 0.05 & 1.04 \(\pm\) 0.08 \\ Mean Turkey & 0.33 \(\pm\) 0.06 & 1.28 \(\pm\) 0.09 \\ WFP limit & - & \textless{}10 \\ \multicolumn{3}{c}{Significance of variables and interactions} \\ \multicolumn{3}{c}{“Biscuit type”} & NS & \(p\) \textless{} 0.05 \\ \multicolumn{3}{c}{“Country”} & NS & NS \\ \multicolumn{3}{c}{“Biscuit type”Country”} & NS & NS \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} 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; WFP = FAO/WHO World Wood Program [31]; ND = not detected; NS: Not significant. Values are expressed as mean \(\pm\) standard deviation (\(n\) = 3).  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Water activity and peroxide value of biscuits marketed in Basrah, Iraq. environments with a water activity below 0.60), and lower than 0.63 reported by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [43]. The water activity of the analyzed biscuits ranged between 0.21-0.5, in agreement with [PERSON] et al. [44] who reported that biscuits usually had a water activity of about 0.3. However, our results were not in agreement with [PERSON] et al. [45] who found the water activity of the biscuits ranged from 0.46 to 0.85 after two hours of biscuits baking. The peroxide value is a critical indicator for the development of primary oxidation of lipids.