Furan in heat processed food products including home cooked food products and ready‐to‐eat products

Abstract

Furan has been found to be formed in canned, jarred and roasted food items and high levels of furan have been found in coffee. As furan is carcinogenic in animal experiments attention has been drawn to the presence in commercial and home-cooked foods. In the present study performed by the the National Food Institute at the Technical University of Denmark, the formation of furan in home cooked foods as well as the stability of furan during cooking, saving and reheating of the meals are presented. Home cooked foods having high levels of carbohydrates are most likely to form furan for instance are furan levels found in toasted bread slices, French fries and crisps correlated with the browning level. As worst case scenarios, foods were home cooked using canned ingredients which contained furan. However, this did not lead to elevated levels of furan in the prepared home cooked foods. For ready-to-eat foods with an initial level of furan, cooking reduced the level of furan in the food to about half the original content probably due to evaporation of furan during heating. Nevertheless furan is relatively stable in heated foods left for cooling where the losses of furan were insignificant.Samples of breakfast cereals and dry bread products have relatively high levels of furan and also bakeware like biscuits, cookies; snacks like crisps, popcorn etc. and sundried fruit and vegetables like raisins, tomatoes contained furan. An estimate of the furan intake for Danish adults revealed that 95% was from consumption of coffee, whereas the food group contributing most to Danish children's intake of furan is the breakfast cereals. SummaryFuran has been found to be formed in canned, jarred and roasted food items and high levels of furan have been found in coffee. As furan is carcinogenic in animal experiments, attention has been drawn to its presence in commercial and home-cooked foods. In the present report results of the Furan in heat processed food productsThe present document has been produced and adopted by the bodies identified above as author(s). In accordance with Article 36 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, this task has been carried out exclusively by the author(s) in the context of a grant agreement between the European Food Safety Authority and the author(s). The present document is published complying with the transparency principle to which the European Food Safety Authority is subject. It may not be considered as an output adopted by EFSA. EFSA reserves its rights, view and position as regards the issues addressed and the conclusions reached in the present document, without prejudice to the rights of the authors.-2-investigation of the formation of furan in home cooked food are presented as well as the stability of furan during cooking, saving and reheating of the meals.Several of the home cooked foods have been tested for their ability to form furan during the preparation of the meals. Home cooked foods rich in carbohydrates are most likely to form furan, probably due to Maillard browning reactions of the f...

Furan and alkylated furans in heat processed food, including home cooked products

“…Supported by EFSA, however, this task has been carried out exclusively by the authors and may not be considered as an output adopted by EFSA (Fromberg et al 2009). We would like to thank Vibeke Balswel and Vera Lykkerask for their technical work and Karin Hess Ygil for advice on the recipes.…”

“…Recipes which contain ingredients with the potential to form furan by heat treatment (Zoller & Reindard 2007) and which are typical European meals (Fagt et al 2008) were chosen for the study. Recipes and ingredients can be found in Fromberg et al (2009). The ready-toeat products included cooked products which are reheated before consumption.…”

Square Wave Voltammetric detection of furan on platinum and platinum-based Screen Printed Electrodes

“…Coffee, canned meat and toasted bread appear to be the major dietary furan source for human beings [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Particularly worrying is the content of furan in jarred baby foods, which may constitute the sole diet of many infants [3,5].…”

“…In particular, furan is formed by commercial or domestic heat treatment in canned, jarred and roasted foods [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], when thermal degradation of carbohydrates, such as glucose, lactose and fructose takes place [10]. Coffee, canned meat and toasted bread appear to be the major dietary furan source for human beings [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…Very recently, the European Food and Safety Authority (EFSA), the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) and the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, published several reports [2][3][4][5][6][7] on the occurrence of furan in food and on the available analytical methodologies. An European Working Group, by the EFSA/CONTAM (European Scientific Expert Panel on Contaminants in Food Chain), charged with the furan information collection was also established and is still working.…”