Nitrite, biogenic amines and volatile N-nitrosamines in commercial Chinese traditional fermented fish products

ABSTRACT

To examine the safety of Chinese traditional fermented fish products (CTFPs) available on the Chinese market, nitrite, nitrate, biogenic amines (BAs) and volatile N-nitrosamines (VNAs) content in 33 commercial CTFPs from different provinces was investigated. The mean content of nitrite and nitrate wase 0.63 and 749.5 mg/kg, respectively. Concerning the occurrence of BAs, the accumulation in all CTFPs samples remained at low levels, whereas only in one sample from Guangxi the histamine content exceeded the critical level (50 mg/kg). In addition, six types of VNAs, including N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), N-nitrosoethylmethylamine, N-nitrosopiperidine, N-nitrosopyrrolidine, N-nitrosomorpholine and N-nitrosodiphenylamine, were detected in a high number of samples. The NDMA content in 36.4% of the samples and the total VNAs content in about 63.6% of the samples were unacceptable. Principal component analysis indicated that the accumulation of NDMA and total VNAs was closely related with the content of histamine, tyramine and nitrate.

KEYWORDS:

• Fermented fish
• nitrite
• biogenic amines
• volatile N-nitrosamines
• N-nitrosodimethylamine

Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the earmarked fund for National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFC1606004-3) and the Open Project Program of Hubei Province Key Laboratory for Processing and Transformation of Agricultural Products (2019HBSQGDKFB06).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Open Project Program of Hubei Province Key Laboratory for Processing and Transformation of Agricultural Products [2019HBSQGDKFB06]; National Key R&D Program of China[2019YFC1606004-3].