Inhibitory effect of hawthorn extract on heterocyclic aromatic amine formation in beef and chicken breast meat

•Different levels of hawthorn extract addition on HAA formation were investigated.•Hawthorn extract reduced (12-100%) the total amount of HAA in chicken breast meat.•Hawthorn extract inhibited the total HAA level (20-100%) in beef.•The largest total HAA inhibition was seen with 0.5% hawthorn extract addition.•Hawthorn extract is a promising inhibitor of total HAA level.

This study focused on the inhibitory effect of different levels of hawthorn extract (0, 0.5, and 1%) on the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) in beef and chicken breast cooked by either pan-cooking or oven-cooking. All meat samples were cooked at three different temperatures (150, 200, and 250 °C) and the levels of twelve HAAs were assessed (IQ, IQx, MeIQ, MeIQx, 4,8-DiMeIQx, 7,8-DiMeIQx, PhIP, harman, norharman, AαC, MeAαC, and Trp-P-2). Varying levels of IQ (up to 4.47 ng/g), IQx (up to 0.69 ng/g), MeIQ (up to 0.82 ng/g), MeIQx (up to 1.01 ng/g), 4,8-DiMeIQx (up to 0.10 ng/g), 7,8-DiMeIQx (up to 0.23 ng/g), PhIP (up to 0.75 ng/g), harman (up to 2.15 ng/g), norharman (up to 1.08 ng/g), AαC (up to 1.86 ng/g), MeAαC (up to 0.48 ng/g), and Trp-P-2 (up to 12.88 ng/g), were detected. Samples cooked at 150 °C had very low amounts of HAAs, and the levels of HAAs increased gradually when the cooking temperature rose from 150 to 250 °C. The total HAA content in chicken breast and beef ranged between not detectable to 17.60 ng/g, and not detectable to 11.38 ng/g, respectively. The inhibitory effects of hawthorn extract at 0.5% and 1% on total HAAs levels were found to be 12-100% and 19-97% in chicken breast, respectively, and 42-100% and 20-35% in beef, respectively. This study demonstrated that hawthorn extracts at 0.5% and 1% could mitigate HAA formation, especially at high cooking temperatures.

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