Effect of different cooking treatments on the residual level of sulphites in shrimps

Abstract

Sulphiting agents (or sulphites) are a class of food additives identified in Europe by codes E220-E228. Their addition in crustaceans is permitted with specific legal limits for avoiding the so-called “blackspot” that is a defect that compromises the marketability of these products. High levels of ingested sulphites may cause pseudoallergenic reactions in susceptible people. Moreover, they can exercise mutagenic and citotoxic effects other that destroy some vitamins such as thiamine, folic acid, nicotinamide and pyridoxal. The residual level of sulphites in crustaceans can be considerably affected by the specific method of cooking. In this study, 5 traditional procedures of cooking – grilling, oven, frying, steaming and stewed cooking – were compared to verify their effect on the residual concentration of sulphites in shrimp samples. The analytical determination was carried out using a fully validated and accredited analytical method by ion chromatography with conductivity detection. The results demonstrated that cooking leads to the decrease of sulphites levels in the products, with the highest percentage of reduction (55.3%) obtained by steaming and the lowest using oven (13.9%). The results of this study confirm that the specific method of cooking should be taken into account during “total diet studies” and risk assessment for appraising the effective number of sulphites ingested from crustaceans consumption.

Red Meat Heating Processes, Toxic Compounds Production and Nutritional Parameters Changes: What about Risk–Benefit?

“…The temperature and degree of doneness tend to have considerable influence on the lipid content and on the fatty acids profile because it can be influenced by the reduction of moisture as well as the use of a lipid source in the heating processes. Frying is the heating process that causes the greatest impact with the highest increase of total lipid and MUFA due to the incorporation of lipids from the oil used during heating processes [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Recently, Borela et al [89] studied the influence of different frying methods on the physiochemical characteristics of fillet steaks, highlighting that an air fryer can be considered a healthy method to cook meat.…”

“…Indeed, the differences in meat composition, especially between fresh and processed meat, and relating to the specific lipid/protein profile of meat from different species, influence the formation of HAAs, NAs, PAHs and acrylamide significantly. Previous studies [10][11][12] on the effects of product type/heat treatment type highlighted a correlation with toxic compound composition; this finding is crucial for food safety and it is useful for improving meat product formulations and for correct heat treatment management.…”