EFFECTS OF MARINATING ON HETEROCYCLIC AMINE CARCINOGEN FORMATION IN GRILLED CHICKEN

This study compared heterocyclic aromatic amines in marinated and unma rinated chicken breast meat flame-broiled on a propane grill. Chicken was marinated prior to grilling and the levels of several heterocyclic amines formed during cooking were determined by solid-phase extractio n and HPLC. Compared with unmarinated controls, a 92-99% decrease in 2 -amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP) was observed in whole chicken breast marinated with a mixture of brown sugar, olive oi l, cider vinegar, garlic, mustard, lemon juice and salt, then grilled for 10, 20, 30 or 40 min. Conversely, 2-amino-3, 8-dimethylimidazo[4,5 -f]quinoxaline (MeIQx) increased over 10-fold with marinating, but onl y at the 30 and 40 min cooking times. Marinating reduced the total det ectable heterocyclic amines from 56 to 1.7 ng/g, from 158 to 10 ng/g a nd from 330 to 44 ng/g for grilling times of 20, 30 and 40 min, respec tively. The mutagenic activity of the sample extracts was also measure d, using the Ames/Salmonella assay. Mutagenic activity was lower in ma rinated samples cooked for 10, 20 and 30 min, but higher in the marina ted samples cooked for 40 min, compared with unmarinated controls. Alt hough a change in free amino acids, which are heterocyclic amine precu rsors, might explain the decrease in PhIP and increase in MeIQx, no su ch change was detected. Marinating chicken in one ingredient at a time showed that sugar was involved in the increased MeIQx, but the reason for the decrease in PhIP was unclear. PhIP decreased in grilled chick en after marinating with several individual ingredients. This work sho ws that marinating is one method that can significantly reduce PhIP co ncentration in grilled chicken. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.