Analysis nitrosamine, meat

In the last fifteen years there has been considerable interest in the analysis of volatile N-nitrosamines in foods. The primary focus has been on meat cured with nitrite (3 ) although nitrosamines have been shown to occur occasionally in other foods such as fish and cheese (, 3) Recently, attention has been directed to volatile nitrosamines in beer and other alcoholic beverages. The purpose of this paper is to review current information on the presence of nitrosamines in beer, and to discuss work done in our laboratory and elsewhere on the mode of formation of nitrosamines in beer. 

There is a balance to be drawn between risks. Looking at nitrite again, this ion has been used since the Middle Ages to preserve meat. It is the preservative in saltpetre which helps preserve cured meats and stop those who eat them getting botulism. There has been much research to find an alternative to nitrite as it can react with some amines to form carcinogenic nitrosamines. Risk analysis, reviewed in Chapter 4, is an important tool in controlling the use of additives. 

A52. Sen, W.P., J.R. Iyengar, B.D. Donaldson, T. Panalaks, and W.F. Miles The analysis and occurrence of volatile nitrosamines in cured meat products in A-Nitroso 17B06. 

N-Nitrosamines are widely distributed in various human environments. The concern was initially focused on their widespread occurrence in food and consumer products, as beer, meats cured with nitrite, smoked fish, tobacco and tobacco smoke, rubber products including baby bottle nipples and pacifiers, cosmetics, drug formulations, or herbicides formulations. Much data of their occurrence have been obtained by inadequate analytical methods and must await confirmation. Considerable progress has been made in the development of adequate and specific methods for trace analysis of nitrosamines, and reliable information is expected in the near future. 

Besides the estimation of the animal species and the control of additives, the analysis of processed meats is associated with verifying composition. Here the emphasis is on the content of extraneous added water, carbohydrate-containing thickeners and binders, nonmeat protein additives and fat. In addition, the determination of nitrites, nitrates, nitrosamines and, for enhancing the... 

In general, nitrosamines arise only in very low concentrations. Since some of these compounds are a great health hazard, they should be detectable below 0.1 ppm in food for human consumption. The same procedures are available for identifying volatile nitrosamines which have been described earlier for the analysis of aroma constituents (cf. 5.2). However, precautions should be taken during the isolation step. Isolation of nitrosamines should not proceed at low pH since an acid medium in the presence of residual meat nitrites promotes further de novo synthesis of nitrosamines. Since the isolated fraction of neutral volatile confounds, which also includes nitrosamines, is highly conplex in composition, reliable nitrosamines identification by gas chromatographic retention data is not possible. Additional mass spectrometric data are needed to verify the chemical structure. 

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