Biogenic Amine Contents in Selected Egyptian Fermented Foods as Determined by Ion-Exchange Chromatography

Abstract

Biogenic amines in foods may pose a public health problem. Therefore, histamine, tyramine, putrescine, cadaverine, spermine, and spermidine concentrations were measured in selected food items commonly consumed in Egypt. Foods examined were dairy products (blue cheese and Mesh cheese), meats (fermented and smoked cooked sausage), and fish (smoked and salted fermented fish [Feseekh], salted sardines, and anchovies). Egyptian fermented sausage had the highest concentration of total biogenic amines (2,482 mg/kg), followed by Mesh cheese (2,118 mg/kg) and blue cheese (2,084 mg/kg). The lowest concentration was found in smoked cooked sausage (111 mg/kg). Histamine was found at a high level (521 mg/kg) in Feseekh, and tyramine was highest (2,010 mg/kg) in blue cheese. These results indicate that some traditional Egyptian foods may pose a health risk due to the concentration of biogenic amines, especially histamine.

Biogenic Amines in Traditional Fiore Sardo PDO Sheep Cheese: Assessment, Validation and Application of an RP-HPLC-DAD-UV Method

“…All these variables concur to justify the enormous differences observed in the amount of the most common BAs when varying the type of cheese. Although it should be possible to find cheeses in which the most common BAs are very low in concentration (also below the mg/kg level) [2,46], it is quite normal measuring, for each one, concentration levels in cheeses ranging between some tens of mg/kg, but it is not rare that the amounts found can also exceed the levels of hundreds [2,[47][48][49] or even the level of thousands [46,50,51] of mg/kg for His [46], Tyr [50,51], Put [46] and Cad [50]. Details of the different analytical approaches used for determining BAs in cheese have been extensively discussed in a number of excellent reviews on this topic [6,32,33,36,52,53].…”

“…Among others, liquid chromatography nowadays still represents the most preferred analytical choice [7,8,12,40,42,46,54,55], even sometimes coupled with a mass spectrometry detection [11,56,57]. Other chromatographic methods have also been used for this aim, like ion-exchange chromatography [51,58], ion chromatography [59] and gas-chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry [60]. Apart from chromatography, several analytical techniques can also be succesfully applied for measuring selected BAs: controlled-potential methods [22], enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methods [61] and capillary electrophoresis techniques [62] have been proposed for the His determination, whereas amperometric biosensors were used for the determination of Tyr [63] and square wave adsorbpitive stripping voltammetry for the determination of Trp [64].…”

Korean Traditional Fermented Foods - A Potential Resource of Beneficial Microorganisms and Their Applications

“…Another Chinese study showed that N-nitroso compounds and genotoxins present before and after nitrosation, appear to be responsible for the cancer risk [9]. An Egyptian study also found high levels of histamine in fermented fish [51].…”

Spontaneous Food Fermentations and Potential Risks for Human Health

“…[53] In fermented sausages, biogenic amines are mainly produced by fermentative microbial population. [45] Ethyl carbamate Ethyl carbamate produced by selected yeasts and lactic acid bacteria in red wine.…”