Mutagenicity of Cooked Hamburger is Reduced by Addition of Ascorbate and Erythorbate to Ground Beef

Abstract

The addition of phenolic antioxidants, cysteine, N-acetylcysteine, unsaturated fatty acids, ascorbate and erythorbate has been evaluated in the reduction of free radical Maillard intermediates, the pyrazine cation radicals, and also the mutagenicity of a heated model system composed of glucose/glycine/creatinine. The aim of the present study was to determine whether these components were useful to reduce the mutagenicity of cooked hambuger. The effect of these components, added at low concentrations to ground beef, on the generation of the mutagenicity of cooked hambuger was examined. Mutagenicity of hamburger was assayed by the Ames test using Salmonella typhimurium TA98 strain with metabolic activation after the mutagens were purified by the use of blue rayon. Mutagenicity of hamburger was reduced to a half by the addition of ascorbate or erythorbate at 0.33%, whereas the mutagenicity was not reduced by epigallocatechin gallate(EGCG), cysteine, N-acetylcysteine, soybean oil or lard at the low concentrations.