Formation and reduction of carcinogenic furan in various model systems containing food additives

The aim of this study was to analyse and reduce furan in various model systems. Furan model systems consisting of monosaccharides (0.5 M glucose and ribose), amino acids (0.5 M alanine and serine) and/or 1.0 M ascorbic acid were heated at 121 °C for 25 min. The effects of food additives (each 0.1 M) such as metal ions (iron sulphate, magnesium sulphate, zinc sulphate and calcium sulphate), antioxidants (BHT and BHA), and sodium sulphite on the formation of furan were measured. The level of furan formed in the model systems was 6.8-527.3 ng/ml. The level of furan in the model systems of glucose/serine and glucose/alanine increased 7-674% when food additives were added. In contrast, the level of furan decreased by 18-51% in the Maillard reaction model systems that included ribose and alanine/serine with food additives except zinc sulphate.