Carcinogens in cooked foods

M. Jagerstad, K. Skog, and A. Solyakov, Effects of possible binding of potential human carcinogens in cooked foods to melanoidins, in Melanoidins in Food and Health, Vol. 1, J. M. Ames (ed), European Communities, Luxembourg, 2000, 89-92. 

J. S. Felton and M. G. Knize, Carcinogens in cooked foods How do they get there and do they have an impact on human health in F, 1998, 11-18. 

Ho, Hascgawa, R., Sano, M Tamaro, S, Esumi, H, Takayama, S., and Sugimura, T. (1991). A new colon and mammary carcinogen in cooked food, 2 amino-l-metbyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-Plpyridine (PhlJ ), Carcinogenesis 12,1503-1506,... 

Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA) are carcinogenic compounds that may occur in food. They are probably formed during cooking processes by the pyrolysis of amino acids and proteins. Since the mid 1990s, LC-MS plays a role in the analysis and characterization of these HAA. Both ESI-MS and APCl-MS are applied. A recent special issne of Journal of Chromatography B [82] emphasizes the analytical challenges related to HAA. The stractnres of the most abundant HAA in cooked food are shown in Figure 14.10. 

Ohgaki, H., Hasegawa, H., Kato, T., Suenaga, M., Ubukata, M., Sato, S., Takayama, S., and Sugimura, T. Carcinogenicity in mice and rats of heterocyclic amines in cooked foods, Environ. Health Persp., 67, 129, 1986. 

Sugimura, T., Wakabayashi, K., Nagao, M., and Esumi, H. 1993. A new class of carcinogens Heterocyclic amines in cooked food. In Food, Nutrition and Chemical Toxicity, ed. 

The book begins with an overview of the history, principles, and advancement of chromatography. It discusses the use of UHPLC techniques in food metabolomics, approaches for analysis of foodborne carcinogens, and details of UPLC-MS techniques used for the separation and determination of capsaicinoids. Chapters describe the analysis of contaminants in food, including pesticides, aflatoxin, per-fluorochemicals, and acrylamide, as well as potentially carcinogenic heterocyclic amines in cooked foods. 

Given their long history of use, it appears unlikely that there are essential oils consumed by humans that contain constituents not yet studied that are weak nongenotoxic carcinogens at chronic high-dose levels. Even if there are such cases, because of the relatively low intake (Lucas et al., 1999) as constituents of essential oils, these yet-to-be-discovered constituents would be many orders of magnitude less potent than similar levels of a atoxins (found in peanut butter), the polycyclic heterocyclic amines (found in cooked foods), or the polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (also found in... 

Wakabayashi, K. Takahashi, M. NagaO, M. Sato, S. Kinae, N. Tomita, I. Sugimura, T. Quantification of mutagenic and carcinogenic heterocyclic amines in cooked foods. In Amino-carbonyl Reactions in Food and Biological Systems Fujimaki, M. Namiki, M, Kato, H., Eds. Elsevier Kodansha, Tokyo, 1986. 

The involvement of tobacco smoke carcinogens in the aetiology of lung cancer is conclusively established, but the role of specific chemical carcinogens as inducers of colorectal cancer is much less clear. Mutagenic pyrolysis products derived from cooked food have come under suspicion as possible... 

Methods were described for HPLC determination of the mutagenic and carcinogenic a-carbolines (56,57), y-carbolines (58,59)155 160, and other products of amino acid pyrolysis found in cigarette smoke, diesel exhaust and cooked foods and phenazines (60, 61) present as impurities of certain pesticides161. These compounds were also determined in human plasma, urine and bile161,162. 

In addition to generation of toxic compounds in the frying oil, toxic molecules may be generated in foodstuff. In April 2002, Swedish scientists sounded an alarm when they discovered that certain cooked food, particularly potato chips and French fries, contained high levels of acrylamide, a chemical compound that is listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a probable human carcinogen (Mitka,... 

In April 2002, Swedish researchers shocked the food safety world when they presented preliminary findings of acrylamide in some Ified and baked foods, most notably potato chips and French fries, at levels of 30-2300 p,m/kg. Reports of the presence of acrylamide in a range of fried and oven-cooked foods have caused worldwide concern because this compound has been classified as probably carcinogenic in humans with significant toxicological effects, namely neurotoxic and mutagenic (Rosen and Hellenas, 2002 Tareke et al., 2002). French fries and potato crisps exhibit relatively high values of acrylamide 424 p-g/kg and 1739 p-g/kg, respectively. 

Humans have used fire for cooking since about 105 years ago. The presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in broiled foods such as beefsteak and broiled fish has been reported (1, 2). The presence of genotoxic substances in broiled foods other than typical carcinogenic hydrocarbons was detected after the development of Ames Salmonella/mammalian-microsome test (3). Charred parts of broiled fish and meat showed mutagenicity towards Salmonella typhirmcrium TA98, a fraraeshift mutant of histidine auxotroph, in the presence of S9 mix, a mixture of rat liver... 

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