Mutagenicity cooked foods

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... 

R. Edenharder, 1. von Petersdorff, and R. Rauscher, Antimutagenic effects of flavonoids, chalcones and structurally related compounds on the activity of 2-amino-3-methylimidazo(4,5-f quinoline (IQ) and other heterocyclic amine mutagens from cooked food. Mutat Res. 287 261 (1993). 

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 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. 

The assessment of mutagenic activity in cooked foods requires tedious extraction work in order to isolate and quantify the responsible chemicals at the nanogram level. Efforts have been made to develop a rapid and efficient method to obtain chromatograms free of interfering material. Coextracted matrix components influence analyte detection limits more than does absolute detector sensitivity (182). The sample workup therefore is the most critical part of the analysis (183). Solid-phase extraction with different coupled columns provides an improvement (176) over LLE and the use of large columns filled with XAD resin. The determination of PAHs and PANHs in food has been carried out by different chromatographic techniques, including LC with fluorescence (164,171,184) and/or UV detection (185,171) and GC with FID (168,186) or MS detection (187). 

Sugimura, T. Nagao, M. Mutagenic factors in cooked foods. CRC Crit. Rev. Toxicol. 1979, 7, 189-209. 

Sugimura, T. Nagao, M. Wakabayashi, K. Mutagenic heterocyclic amines in cooked food. Environ. Carcinog. Sel. Methods Anal. 1981, 4, 251-67. 

Mutagens in Cooked Foods Possible Consequences of the Maillard Reaction... 

A number of factors may influence the amount of mutagenic activity observed in extracts of cooked foods. These factors may alter the amount of mutagen which is formed during cooking or which would be available in vivo to bind to cellular DNA. However, care should be exercised to assure that modifying factors are not artefactual by way of changing the response of the in vitro test system in a manner unlikely to be duplicated in vivo. 

It is most interesting to find not only that mutagens are present in many common cooked foods, but that in most cases they are some of the most potent mutagens so far identified. It is important to realize that, for a number of reasons, there is no way to translate this finding into an estimate of human risk at this time. 

Mutagen levels obtained after cooking food just beyond normal range of edibility. Basic fraction was tested on TA98 with S-9 as described in the text. 

Mutagens Isolated from Pyrolysates of Amino Acids and Protein, and from Cooked Foods... 

Table III. Example of quantitative analyses for mutagens in cooked foods...

DNA) (al-A R, L-type Ca2+ CH, DNA, 5HT2-R) [co-mutagenic, convulsant, cytoxic, genotoxic, motor depressant, DNA intercalator, sheep Tribulus staggers , vasorelaxant] from pyrolysate of Tryptophan (cooked food)... 

Problems associated with the determination of HAs in cooked foods and with human exposure have been reported. The estimated daily intake of HAs, in different studies, ranges from 0-15 pg/person/day (230). In a study that looked at the heterologous expression of human N-acetyltransferases 1 and 2 and sulfotransferase lAl in Salmonella typhimurium for the mutagenicity testing of heterocyclic amines, it was found that both 0-acetylation and 0-sulfonation were important determinants for HA genotoxicity in humans (231). 

During toe 1980s research on roasted meat and other types of heated protein containing foods indicated the presence of Polycyclic Heterocyclic Amines (PHA). These materials were shown to be mutagenic and major carcinogens. Cooked foods contained these materials so it was reasoned toat "process flavors" would also contain them. Foods and their metoods of cooking are not regulated except for... 

Felton, J. S., Bjeldaness L. F., and Hatch, F. T., Mutagens in cooked foods — metabolism and genetic toxicity, in Nutritional and Toxicological Aspects of Food Safety, Friedman, M., Ed., Plenum Press, New York, 1984, 555. 

Lewis, A.)., Walle, U.K., King, R.S., Kadlubar, F.F., Falany, C.N., and Walle, T. (1998) Bioadivation of the cooked food mutagen N-hydroxy-2-amino-l-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-i>] pyridine by estrogen sulfotransferase in cultured human mammary epithelial cells. Carcinogenesis, 19, 2049-2053. 

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