2-Acetyl-4-tetrahydroxybutylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole in caramel colours, vinegar and beverages in China

Abstract

A survey of 2-acetyl-4-tetrahydroxybutylimidazole (THI) and 4-methylimidazole (4-MeI) concentrations in caramel colours, vinegar and beverages from the Chinese market were performed by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). In total, 117 samples, 78 caramel colour samples, 23 vinegar samples and 16 beverage samples, were investigated. The results indicated that 4-MeI was found in all samples. THI was found in a part of the samples and also the level range was lower compared to 4-MeI. In caramel colour samples, the concentration level range of THI was 1.0-74.3 mg/kg and of 4-MeI was 1.5-1291.8 mg/kg. In vinegar samples, the concentration level range of THI was 13.3-119.2 µg/L and for 4-MeI 111.2-2077.8 µg/L. In beverage samples, THI was only found in two samples and the concentration level range of 4-MeI was 10.8-307.1 µg/L. THI and 4-MeI levels in vinegar and beverages were rather low compared with those in caramel colour samples. These observations can be helpful for evaluating individual exposure to THI and 4-MeI from caramel colours, vinegar and beverages in China.

Sous-Vide Nonenzymatic Browning of Glucosamine at Different Temperatures

“…LC was run on an Agilent 1200 HPLC system (Agilent, Palo Alto, CA, U.S.A.) with a degasser, a quaternary pump, a thermostated autosampler, and a UV−visible detector. The MS procedures were followed as described by Wang et al 23 and were performed using the reversed-phase column Ascentis Express Peptide ES-C18 (150 × 4.6 mm, 2.7 μm particle size; Sigma-Aldrich). The samples were eluted with (A) 0.05% ammonia in water and (B) 5% acetonitrile with a gradient programmed as 5% B (0 min), 5% B (3 min), 40% B (5 min), 5% B (5.1 min), and 5% B (6.5 min) at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min.…”

Oxidative stress, biochemical and histopathological alterations induced by some synthetic food colorants on Albino rats

“…Caramel is one of the oldest worldwide consumed colorants of all foods and drinks colorants (JECFA, 1992) and used in cola beverages for over 150 years and still used up today (Delgado-Vargas and Paredes-Lo´pez, 2003). Many chemical reactions take place during the production process of caramel color, and lead to the formation of some compounds such as furan, 5-hydroxy methyl furfural (EFSA, 2011), acrylamide (Ghen and Gu, 2014), 2-acetyl-4tetrahydroxy-butyl imidazole (Wang et al, 2015), and 4-methylimidazole (Xu et al, 2015). These chemicals induced cytotoxic, genotoxic and mutagenic effects and they are suspected from carcinogenicity (Khalil et al, 2010;Kahoun et al, 2017;Pereira et al, 2011).…”

Comparison of acute respiratory epithelial toxicity for 4-Methylimidazole and naphthalene administered by oral gavage in B6C3F1 mice

“…4-Methylimidazole (4MEI) 1 is a chemical byproduct of caramelization found in consumer products such as caramel-colored beverages, coffee, soy sauce, wine, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and ammoniated molasses (Hengel and Shibamoto, 2013). 4MEI concentrations range from <5 ng/mL up to 2,000 ng/mL in caramelized foods (Fierens et al, 2018;Folmer et al, 2018;Goscinny et al, 2014;Hengel and Shibamoto, 2013;Smith et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2015). Even though the major sources of dietary 4MEI exposure vary, 4MEI is consistently found in foods globally with mean intakes of 4MEI measured for high exposure scenarios at 93 μg/kg bodyweight /day in America (Folmer et al, 2018), 3.7 μg/ kg bodyweight /day in Belgium (Fierens et al, 2018), and 5.2 μg/kg bodyweight /day in China (Liang et al, 2019).…”