THE SUITABILITY OF WATER IN KHARTOUM STATE INDUSTRIAL AREA FOR FOOD PROCESSING

The present study aimed at investigating the suitability of water for food processing particularly gaseous bev- erages in Khartou m State. Ten samples of water were co llected fro m six wells (A, B, C, D, E and F) distributed throughout Khartoum North Industrial Area, also three samp les (T1,T2,T3) were collected fro m well (B) after water treat ment. The p H of water samples ranged (6.7 - 7.8). All samp les gave acceptable results for the Electrical Conductivity (E.C) (284- 970µs/cm, total dissolved solids (T.D.S) (143 - 485 mg/L), sulfate (1.5 - 142.4 mg/ L), chloride (6.8-94.0mg/ L), fluoride (0.0-0.23 mg/ L), n itrate (2.01 - 9.24 mg/ L), n itrite (0.006-0.467 mg/ L), As for ammonia the collected water sam- ples contained a range of (0.0 - 0.01mg/ L), wh ile the iron content of the various water samples was ≤0.3 mg/ L. So me of the samples gave high levels of turb idity while other samples gave low levels of turbid ity. The water samp les were free fro m E. coli and the total colifo rm, therefore they were acceptable for the consumer and were suitable for drinking and food processing as they have matched with all conditions of the Sudanese Standards and the International Standards for drin king water. The T.D.S of water samp les ranged between 143-260 m/ l. This indicates that there is no need fo r using Reverse Os- mosis (R.O) to reduce the concentration of the salts and minerals in water. Filtration and coagulation process for the water treatment is sufficient process for this purpose. Most of the microbiological, physical, chemical and geological p roperties for well's water samples (A, B, C, D, E and F) , were found to match with the local and International Standards for drin king water, that means these water samp les are suitable for food processing and drinking.