Chronic daily intake, probabilistic carcinogenic risk assessment and multivariate analysis of volatile N-nitrosamines in chicken sausages

Abstract

ABSTRACT Volatile N-nitrosamines (VNAs) are probably and possibly carcinogenic compounds to humans and widely found in processed meat products. In this study, the dietary exposure distribution and probabilistic cancer risk for main VNAs (N-nitrosodimethylamine, N-nitrosodiethylamine, N-nitrosomethylethylamine, N-nitrosopiperidine, N-nitrosodibutylamine, and N-nitrosodi-n-propylamine) were calculated by Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). The lowest and highest mean concentrations of these six NAs were related to NDBA and NDEA as 0.350 and 2.655 μg/kg, respectively. In the 95th percentile, chronic daily intake of total VNAs for children (3–14 years) and adults (15–70 years) were calculated to be 2.83 × 10−4 and 5.90 × 10−5 mg/kg bw/day, respectively. The cancer risk caused by the consumption of chicken sausages was less than 10−4, indicating low concern for the Iranian population. According to principal component analysis and heat map results, NDEA, NPIP and frying showed a positive correlation, highlighting that the variables follow a similar trend.