Development of a food database of nitrosamines, heterocyclic amines, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Some nitrosocompounds that are formed during food preservation, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heterocyclic amines (HA) formed during cooking, may have carcinogenic activity. An accurate assessment of dietary intake of such compounds is difficult, mainly because they are not naturally present in foods, and they are not included in standard food composition tables. Our objective was to develop a food composition database of nitrates, nitrites, nitrosamines, HA, and PAH. We conducted a literature search on the food content of these compounds using the Medline and EMBASE databases. We gathered the following information: 1) Food information: name, cooking methods, preservation methods, cooking doneness, temperature, and time; 2) compound information: type, quantity, value type, analytic method, and sampling methods; and 3) publication information: year, author, and country. We developed a table that includes 207 food items with information concerning the concentration of nitrites, nitrates, and nitrosamines, 297 food items with information about HA concentration and 313 food items with information about PAH. The database is based on 139 references from 23 different countries. It is arranged according to compounds and food groups to facilitate its practical use. The potential limitations are due to the quality of the information we could obtain through Medline and EMBASE databases. This database will allow investigators to quantify dietary exposure to several potential carcinogens, and to analyze their relation to the risk of cancer.