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Mutagens in cooked foods — and the assessment of their potential risk to health
Author(s) -
ROWLAND IAN,
ANDERSON DIANA
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
nutrition bulletin
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.933
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1467-3010
pISSN - 1471-9827
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-3010.1989.tb00329.x
Subject(s) - food science , fish <actinopterygii> , in vivo , chemistry , cooked meat , quercetin , kidney , mutagen , biology , dna , biochemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , antioxidant , endocrinology , fishery
Summary When meat or fish is cooked, a number of mutagenic pyrolysis products may be formed. The amounts produced depend on the type of food and the cooking conditions used. More mutagenic activity is associated with the cooking of muscle protein than with organ meat such as liver and kidney. Grilling and frying, because of the higher surface temperatures generated, produce more mutagenic activity in meat than do other methods of cooking. The quantities of mutagens formed, even by frying, are very small (about 20ug/kg), but they are, nevertheless, a cause for concern because these compounds are amongst some of the most potent mutagens known. Furthermore, they bind to DNA in vivo and, when fed to rats and mice, induce tumours in various organs, including liver and the intestine. However evidence is accumulating that other dietary components can influence the genotoxic activity of the ‘cooked food mutagens’. For example, dietary fibre reduces the activity of the compounds in mice, whereas feeding quercetin, a flavonoid found in many vegetables, increases the mutagenic activity in vivo.