Investigation of Sodium Dithionite Residues in the Rock Candies Produced in the Candies Making Plants of Hamadan, Iran

Introduction and purpose: Rock candy is one of the most widely used sugarproducts in Iran. The use of chemical additives in food products can be a seriousthreat to human health and environment if it is not accompanied with sufficientmonitoring and management. Regarding this, the present study was conductedwith the aim of investigating the amount of sodium dithionite residue in the rockcandies produced in the candy making plants of Hamadan, Iran.Methods: This descriptive and analytical study was conducted on the rockcandies produced in all the active candy making plants of Hamadan in 2015.The sampling was performed for four months in 20 rock candy producing plants.The concentration of sodium dithionite residue was determined according to theguidelines released by the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran.Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 16 and Excel 2013 software.Results: According to the results, sodium dithionite was used as an additive inall rock candy making plants investigated in this study. The highest and lowestconcentrations of sodium dithionite were 23.85 and 3.2 mg/kg, respectively.Furthermore, the results indicated that in over 37.5% of total sample size, sodiumdithionite concentration was higher than the standard value. The mean concentrationsof sodium dithionite in the rock candies produced in March, April, May, and Junewere 9.7±5.84, 9.49±3.7, 9±3.76, and 7.1±2.99 mg/kg, respectively, which wereindicative of significant differences between different months in this regard.Conclusion: As the findings of the present study indicated, the rock candiesproduced in the majority of the investigated plants had a high sodium dithioniteconcentration, which was due to the use of unsuitable main ingredients.Therefore, more monitoring and training are needed for the workshop operators.