Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Select Commercially Processed Meat and Fish Products in Finland and the Mutagenic Potential of These Food Items

Abstract

Commercially processed meat and fish products are common sources of human exposure to chemical food mutagens. In this study, we investigated the mutagenic potential of 20 different commercially processed meat and fish products (7 product types with 2–3 lots of each), along with the presence of four principal polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (benzo[a]pyrene [BaP], benzo[b]fluoranthene [BbF], benzo[a]anthracene [BaA] and chrysene [CHR]) in them. Sample extraction was carried out by an accelerated solvent extraction method, while the concentrations of the 4 PAHs were determined by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The mutagenic potential of food extracts was assessed by the standard plate incorporation assay (Ames test) using two strains of Salmonella typhimurium (TA 100 and TA 98) both in the presence and the absence of metabolic activation (S9-mix). The results show that in the majority of food items investigated, PAH levels were below the limit of quantification (0.78 μg/kg), except for smoked fish (0.8–15 μg/kg for the 3 lots), one batch of which even exceeded the maximum limits for both the sum of the 4 PAHs (44 μg/kg vs. 30 μg/kg) and BaP (8.2 μg/kg vs. 5.0 μg/kg). Furthermore, all three batches of smoked fish were also found to be mutagenic on both strains of Salmonella, both in the presence and the absence of metabolic activation. Overall, the data from both assays were in a fairly good agreement with one another, suggesting that PAHs are major contributors to mutagenicity of processed food products and the set maximum levels for PAHs are usually protective against food mutagenicity, although food samples harboring PAHs at levels approaching the maximum limits may exhibit mutagenic potential. Since the number of samples investigated was relatively small, further studies are warranted to verify the conclusions.