Quantification of Biogenic Amines in 35 Korean Cottage Industry Traditional Gochujang (Fermented Red Pepper Paste) Products.

Srinivasan Ramalingam,Ah-Ryeong Joe,Ashutosh Bahuguna,So-Young Kim,Semi Lim,Jong-Suk Lee,Myunghee Kim

doi:10.3390/foods10102370

Srinivasan Ramalingam, Ah-Ryeong Joe + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10102370

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Abstract

Traditional gochujang is well known for its distinguished flavor and taste. However, the safety of cottage industry gochujang products is uncertain, particularly, in terms of biogenic amine (BA) content which is not yet documented. The present study aimed to determine the level of BAs present in 35 traditional gochujang products nationwide. All gochujang products had considerable amounts of total BAs ranging from 52.95 mg/kg to 176.24 mg/kg. Individually, histamine and tyramine were either not detected or detected up to 16.94 mg/kg and 2.15–52.34 mg/kg, respectively. In all the tested gochujang products, putrescine, spermidine, and spermine were detected in the range of 7.60–56.72 mg/kg, 14.96–36.93 mg/kg, and 4.68–16.31 mg/kg, respectively. A total of 22 and 19 gochujang products had less than 1 mg/kg of cadaverine and histamine, respectively. The findings indicate that all the gochujang products tested herein had BA levels below the suggested toxicity limits recommended by the various regulatory authorities, which reveal that they are safe for human consumption.

Highlights

Gochujang is a traditional Korean fermented food that is generally used as a sauce in Korean cuisines and as a seasoning in spicy foods
Gochujang fabricated in the traditional cottage industry contains a mixture of complex raw materials, which are fermented by different microorganisms and are more vulnerable to biogenic amine (BA) production [1]
The low amount of the BAs in the gochujang samples might be due to excellent hygienic conditions, selection of raw materials, and fermentation environments, which are the major factors that influence the production of BAs

Summary

Introduction

Gochujang (fermented red pepper paste) is a traditional Korean fermented food that is generally used as a sauce in Korean cuisines and as a seasoning in spicy foods. BAs are organic nitrogenous compounds with low molecular weight that are mainly found in fermented foods These are microbial decarboxylation products of amino acids and are considered to be toxicants and the anti-nutritional elements of food [7]. An excessively high number of BAs, such as histamine (>500 ppm), putrescine (>2000 ppm), spermine (>600 ppm), and spermidine (>600 ppm), induces considerable toxicity [7] These nitrogenous compounds are mostly produced by microorganisms during fermentation through enzymatic decarboxylation of amino acids, as well as transamination of ketones and aldehydes [8]. The present study aimed to determine the quantity of various BAs, such as agmatine, cadaverine, histamine, 2-phenylethylamine, putrescine, spermidine, spermine, tryptamine, and tyramine, in 35 gochujang products collected from nationwide cottage industries

Chemicals

Sample Collection

Estimation of BAs

Statistical Analysis

Results and Discussion

Conclusions