The effect of ascorbic acid on the formation of carcinogenic heterocyclic amines in the case of grilled chicken breast

Many harmful substances may be produced during food preparation needing to be paid attention. Heat treatment has been used since ancient times. It makes food of both plant and animal origin microbiologically safer and it also renders the uptake of nutrients easier. However, more and more research suggests that excessive heat treatment can cause problems, including the development of potential carcinogenic compounds. Such genotoxic carcinogens are the heterocyclic amines (HCA's) that are produced at high temperature in meat and fish meals. According to the literature, pre-treatment with marinades containing an antioxidant agent can be an effective method of decreasing the formation of HCA's. Studies show that in addition to various vegetable and fruit extracts, many vitamins play an important role in reducing the amount of HCA's. It is already proved that ascorbic acid has antioxidant activity but its effect on the formation of HCA's is not clarified completely. In our food chemistry experiments chicken breast slices treated with ascorbic acid marinade were grilled at 230 degrees C for 10 minutes using two -side grilling during which the core temperature was continuously measured. The inhibitory effect of ascorbic acid was followed by measuring the amount of five compounds (PhIP, MelQx, DiMeIQx, harman, noharman) that were the focus of our study. Following the sample preparation the amount of heterocyclic amines was measured by UHPLC-MSMS (ultra high performance liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometer). According to our results, the amount of thermic HCA's, which is more hazardous to health, decreased significantly in the superficial areas most exposed to heat. Inside the meat, ascorbic acid did not show a clear effect, nor did the amount of co -carcinogenic pyrolytic HCA's change proportionally with that of vitamin C. The area needs further research.