ABSTRACT

Antioxidants are important chemicals which have been used as food additives for a long time. Antioxidants are divided into two; Natural Antioxidants which are found naturally occurring in fruits and vegetables and also plant-orientated foods like vegetable oils, tea, wine, etc. And Synthetic Antioxidants which are added into processed food for preservation against rancidity and auto-oxidation. The antioxidant concentration was determined from eight processed and canned food stuff The results obtained showed that all samples contained Vitamin C but this occurred more in the fruit drink (Nutria C) with 110.73 ± 0.73mg/lOOg and the powdered milk (Ladha) with 108.53 ± 0.37mg/bOg. Vitamin E occurred in all the samples except the wine (Eva). The concentration being more in the groundnut oil with 8065 ± 15.021U/lO0g, in the sardine (fish in oil) with 824.29± 2.86 JU/lOOg. It is noticed that vitamin E occurred more in the oils than the other food samples. The Gallates did not occur in three of the samples but occurred in very minute quantities in the remaining samples. The gallate content ranged from 0.01 ± 0.000mg/kg to 0.087 ± 0.001 mg/kg. Citric acid was not present in two samples but occurred in minute quantities in the remaining food samples at the range of 0.026 ±0.0007% to 0.13 1 ± 0.0003%. From the results obtained, it can he deduced that the antioxidant contents of these blood samples are evenly distributed according to the nutritional and preservative requirement of the individual samples.