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Try
Thai or Rosemary when spicing the meat to
curb Carcinogens
Newswise — Warm weather brings on the
seasonal meat favorites that are barbecued,
grilled, broiled or fried. That also means
more potential exposure to carcinogenic
compounds known as heterocyclic amines (HCAs).
There’s a way to reduce the risk
significantly by just adding some spices –
rosemary extracts or Thai spices.
“Just one of the spices would work,” said J.
Scott Smith, a Kansas State University food
chemistry professor who researched the issue
for the Food Safety Consortium. “Rosemary
would be fine or one of the Thai spices
would be fine.”
The numbers from Smith’s research tell the
story. Some commercial rosemary extracts can
inhibit the formation of HCAs in cooked beef
patties by 61 to 79 percent. Thai spices can
inhibit the formation by about 40 to 43
percent. The key is the level of
antioxidants present in each, and Thai
spices have lower levels than rosemary.
A discerning consumer wondering which to use
need rely only on personal taste.
“What it boils down to in a lot of the cases
is preference as far as the flavor,” Smith
said. “For example, cinnamon is also very
good but some people don’t like it. Some
people don’t like rosemary. Some of these
Thai spices are unique and there would be
ones in colors that people would want to use
more than a rosemary or cinnamon or other
products.”
Inhibiting HCAs in cooked meat products is
an important step in food safety. Smith’s
additional research has found that HCA
levels increase as charring increases on
meat skin and the moisture content
decreases. The numbers vary on different
meats after cooking. Bacon and rotisserie
chicken had the highest HCA levels with deli
meats and hot dogs showing the lowest.
Chicken skin and breast meat had all five of
the HCA types.
The skin of rotisserie chicken that is sold
in grocery stores as precooked roasted
products often has some burnt, crusty areas
on it with high HCA levels. Fortunately,
Smith noted, most people don’t eat those
parts.
“We’re trying to evaluate these levels based
on the way the consumer would eat the
product,” Smith said. “We just looked at
different products that consumers are
consuming. We really didn’t have good data
on it, so we took a look at it to see what
the actual risk would be.”
Few consumers are aware that rosemary and
Thai spices provide reliable ways to reduce
risk from HCAs in cooked meat. Smith
believes the industry should market the
products to increase awareness. For now, the
word is mostly on the Internet. The herbs
and spices industry haven’t put the word out
significantly.
Although the situation isn’t related to HCAs,
Smith recalled when cocoa was found to
contain beneficial antioxidants, just as
rosemary and Thai spices do. The chocolate
industry began promoting that aspect. “It
took awhile to catch on,” Smith said about
the availability of dark chocolate. “For
awhile you really couldn’t buy much of it.
It just wasn’t available here in the United
States. You had to go to get it in Europe.
Now you can get dark chocolate all over the
place.”
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