Evaluating the quality of food products offered in the local ‎markets and their compliance with the standard specification ‎of the labeling card

Abstract

Labelling card on food products is one of the ways in which consumers can know the contents of the food products they want to buy, so many countries have set a standard for this label. This study aimed to assess the quality of some food products offered in some local markets according to the Libyan Standard Specification No. (53) for the year 2020. The labelling card was examined for 290 food products in some markets in the cities of Nalut and Tripoli, some of which are produced in Libya and some that are imported from 31 countries. The labelling card of all the studied products was compared with what was stated in the Libyan standard for the data label referred to. The analytical descriptive approach was followed, and the results of the study showed that many food products are in violation of the Libyan Standard Specification (53) for the year 2020. The results of the study showed, in general, that 13.0% of the products did not conform to the standard in terms of writing and clarity of the date of production and validity, while 51.4% did not conform to the standard in terms of arranging the list of food ingredients, and 30.0% did not conform to the standard in terms of nutritional information, and 25.4% did not comply with the standard. Not conforming to the writing and storage conditions. As for the clarity of the data, the non-conformity rate reached 4.3%, and the writing of warnings on the labelling card had a non-conformity rate of 40.1%. The percentage of non-conforming products with regard to the food additives was 1.2%. As for the net contents, the rate of non-conformity to the standard was 8.1%. The percentage of non-compliant products with regard to barcode conformity and the extent of its conformity to the country of origin was 19.9. %.