Sources of mutagenicity in cooked Finnish foods

Abstract

The mutagenic activities of the alkaline fractions derived from various heat-processed, ready-made meat, fish and poultry foods were studied using the Salmonella mutagenicity assay with strain TA98 and S-9 mix to provide information about the mutagenicity of everyday Finnish foods. The majority of the food samples tested were mutagenic. The mutagenic activities of various commercial ready-made food samples were very low compared with the activities of grilled and broiled foods and restaurant products. Mutagenicity varied remarkably between different samples. The cooking temperature clearly affected the mutagenicities of fried or reheated food samples, mutagenicity increasing with increasing temperature. The results indicate that the main sources of cooked-food mutagens in everyday Finnish foods are grilled and broiled products and foods fried at restaurants and at home. By comparison, commercial ready-made fried foods are only a minor source of mutagenicity. Variations between equivalent food samples indicated that heat processing has a marked effect on the mutagenic activity of the product, which might therefore be reduced by modifying the cooking process.