Inhibitory effects of hydrocolloids on the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines in smoked chicken drumsticks and the underlying mechanism

This study aims to investigate the inhibitory effects of hydrocolloids on heterocyclic aromatic amine (HAA) formation in chemical model systems and smoked chicken drumsticks. In chemical model systems I and II, xanthan gum (XG) and carboxymethyl cellulose sodium (CMC-Na) effectively inhibited the 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5- b ]pyridine (PhIP), 1-methyl-9H-pyrido[3,4- b ]indole (Harman), and 9H-pyrido[3,4- b ]indole (Norharman) formation in comparison with the control sample ( P  < 0.05). Arabic gum (AG) inhibited the PhIP and Harman formation ( P  < 0.05), but its inhibitory action against Norharman formation was not significant ( P  > 0.05). Further mechanism investigation of chemical model system I showed that the formation of PhIP was mainly inhibited via trapping phenylalanine and creatinine by glyoxal and methyglyoxal. A mechanistic investigation of chemical model system II suggested the inhibition of Harman and Norharman formation by XG and CMC-Na could be through trapping tryptophan by glyoxal and methyglyoxal. In smoked chicken drumsticks, CMC-Na had a dose-dependent inhibitory effect against the PhIP, Harman, and Norharman formation in comparison with the control sample ( P  < 0.05), and 2.0% CMC-Na had the highest inhibitory rates of 45.83%, 21.82%, and 30.92%, respectively. Moreover, CMC-Na effectively inhibited the formation of PhIP, Harman, and Norharman precursors and intermediates in smoked chicken drumsticks, which further confirmed the above inhibition mechanism of CMC-Na. These results could provide an effective approach to reduce HAA formation in smoked meat products by incorporating hydrocolloids.