Sensitive and Selective Spectrophotometric Assay of Nitrite in Canned Meat and Vegetable Offered in the Mosul Market.

Twelve different canned food samples were used to assess the amount of nitrite using two distinct spectroscopic methods. A: Follow the absorbance and B: Follow the peak area; these two methods are predicated on the oxidation of nitrite by iron (III) ion, and the reduced iron ion reacts with the bathophenanthroline (BTN) to form a red soluble complex. The method is sensitive with 676.13 l.mol-1.cm-1 as a molar absorptivity, and Beer's law is followed over the concentration range of 345 g/ml with a maximum wavelength at 534 nm., limit of quantitation (LOQ) value is 0.5956 g/ml, and limit of detection (LOD) value is 0.1786 g/ml. Nitrite has been extracted from meat samples by hot distilled water in the presence of mercuric chloride, and from vegetables by hot basic aqueous solution, the validation of the method exhibits good ability for routine examination analysis of nitrite in quality control units of foods. Ferric chloride has been added and optimized to eliminate the effect of ascorbic acid which is already added as an antioxidant through the production of canned meats.