Semicarbazide: occurrence in food products and state-of-the-art in analytical methods used for its determination

The concentration of semicarbazide (SEM) in baby food packed in glass jars with lids sealed with plastic gaskets was determined in more than 100 samples, produced in eleven European countries and purchased at local supermarkets in fourteen countries. The method used for the analyses has been recently validated in a collaborative study. The measured SEM concentration was correlated with several parameters: production country, brand, type of food (fruit, vegetables, meat and combination of those), protein, lipid and carbohydrate content, and their origin (organic and conventional agriculture). The lowest values of SEM were found in samples containing only fruit with a mean concentration of 5.5 +- 3.8 µg/Kg. Some brands were characterised by low levels of SEM regardless of the composition. The levels of SEM found were comparable for the different countries of production, only the samples produced in Spain had systematically a significant relative lower concentration, regardless of the composition. Both high and low semicarbazide levels were found amount organic and conventional samples.

DE LA CALLE GUNTINAS Maria Beatriz;  SZILAGYI Szilard;  ANKLAM Elke; 

2006-09-21

SPRINGER

JRC31112

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC31112,