Heterocyclic amine content in commercial ready to eat meat products

Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are produced in meats cooked at high temperature, which are potent mutagens and a risk factor for human cancers. The aim of this study was to estimate the amount of HCAs in some commonly consumed ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products. The RTE products were purchased from a local grocery store, and HCA were analyzed using an analytical method based on solid-phase extraction followed by HPLC. The primary HCAs in these samples were PhIP (2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo [4,5-b]pyridine) (not detected—7.9 ng/g) and MeIQx (2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo [4,5-f]quinoxaline) (not detected—3.6 ng/g). Products ranked in order of increasing total HCA content: pepperoni (0.05 ng/g) < hot dogs and deli meat products (0.5 ng/g) < fully cooked bacon (1.1 ng/g) < rotisserie chicken meat (1.9 ng/g) < rotisserie chicken skin (16.3 ng/g). We believed that cooking conditions and ingredients influenced the level of HCAs in these RTE products and concluded that consumption of RTE meat products contributes very little to HCA intake. Results from this study can be used in risk assessment study to estimate human exposure to HCAs due to food consumption.