Comparison of ash content of Elaeagnus angustifolia powder supplied in grocery and nut shops

Determining the ash content of a food is part of proximate analysis for nutritional evaluation and it is an important quality attribute for some food ingredients. Considering the interest of the society in the use of Elaeagnus angustifolia powder, we examined its ash, as important quality attribute, in this study. For this purpose, 20 samples of 100 grams (10 specimens from grocery and 10 samples from nut shops) were purchased randomly and clustered based on the distribution of sales areas from different districts of Ardabil city, in accordance with the national standard of Iran No. 13535. The ash content of specimens was measured using AACC Method 08-01.01. Based to the results, the mean ash content of the samples was 3.63±1.78 (%). There was no significant difference between the ash of Elaeagnus angustifolia powder supplied in grocery and nut shops (3.39 ± 1.52 (%) in grocery shops vs. 3.87 ± 2.07 (%) in nut shops, p 0.05). The range of ash content was 1.95-6.25 (percent) and 1.85 – 7.40 (percent) for Elaeagnus angustifolia powder supplied in grocery and nut shops, respectively. However, in both types of samples, the ash content was more than the recommended values (p=0.001). It seems that the amount of ash in the Elaeagnus angustifolia powder supplied in markets was related to food frauds.