Cyanide Formation in Freezer Stored Foods: Freezing of a Glycine and Nitrite Mixture

Abstract

Freezing is not always the best way to keep foods safely. Some reactions are known to be accelerated in ice. Furthermore, some other reactions that are not observed in solution are also promoted in ice. We found that the formation of nitrosamines through the reaction of an amine with a nitrite is accelerated in ice. Surprisingly, cyanide is formed through the reaction of glycine with nitrite in ice but not in solution. Amines are present in many kinds of foods. Nitrite is present in vegetables and is used as a food coloring agent and to inhibit the reproduction of Clostridium botulinum. The maximum amount of cyanide formed reaches a dangerous level, and the intake of this formed cyanide in a few tens of cubic centimeters causes some people to get headaches. These facts suggest that hazardous compounds could be generated in frozen processed foods. We report here the formation of cyanide and its possible formation pathway in ice. Finally, we propose a way to prevent cyanide formation in food under frozen conditions.

Distinct photochemistry in glycine particles mixed with different atmospheric nitrate salts

“…Taking particulate [H 2 O 2 ] and [NO − 3 ] as 0.1 ng µg −1 and 0.2 µg µg −1 (per PM 2.5 mass; Xuan et al, 2020;Cheng et al, 2016;, respectively, the OH generation from particulate nitrate photolysis could be 4 orders of magnitude higher than from H 2 O 2 photolysis. Other oxidants from nitrate photolysis, such as nitrite and HONO, can also react with FAAs to promote their decay via N nitration (Kitada et al, 2020). As shown in Fig.…”