Furan in food - a review

Abstract

Furan and its derivatives were identified in a small number of heat-treated foods back in the 60's and 70's. In May 2004, US Food and Drug Administration published a report on the occurrence of parent furan in a number of thermally treated foods. Since furan has been classified as "possibly carcinogenic to human" by IARC, a great concern has been addressed to the analysis of this substance naturally-occurring in food. This paper gives a short overview on the mechanistic pathways of the parent furan formation in food by degradation of amino acids and/or reducing sugars, and oxidation of ascorbic acid and poly-unsaturated acids which can be induced by thermal or irradiation treatments; further, it deals with the metabolism and toxicology of furan as well as with the comparison of the methods of furan determination.

Trapping of cis-2-Butene-1,4-dial to Measure Furan Metabolism in Human Liver Microsomes by Cytochrome P450 Enzymes

“…One calculation indicates that baby food consumption could result in a daily exposure as high as 3.5 g/kg for an infant (Vranová and Ciesarová, 2009). Others have calculated the mean infant food-derived furan exposure as ϳ0.4 g/kg per day with the 90th percentile being 1 g/kg per day and the mean adult food-derived furan exposure at ϳ0.3 g/kg per day with the 90th percentile predicted to be 0.6 g/kg per day (the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Exploratory Data on Furan in Food: Individual Food Products, http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FoodContaminantsAdulteration/ ChemicalContaminants/Furan/ucm078439.htm, 2009).…”

5-Hydroxymethyl-2-Furfural (HMF) – Heat-Induced Formation, Occurrence in Food and Biotransformation - a Review

“…The chain of complex, competitive and consecutive reactions and the fact that they take place simultaneously generating many reactive intermediates make their interpretation and control difficult [Richardson, 2001]. Furan and many of its derivatives are one of the compound classes that can be found at very low levels in many foods and drinks as a result of thermal treatment [Vranová & Ciesarová, 2009]. The processes characterised by intensive thermal treatment are baking, toasting and roasting.…”

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

“…The diversity of foods which contain furan suggests that multiple pathways are likely to be involved in the formation of furan in foods (Morehouse et al 2007;Owczarek-Fendor et al 2011;. Studies performed in model systems have shown that furan and methylfuran can be generated from heating ascorbic acid, polyunsaturated fatty acids, unsaturated aldehydes, sugars, and amino acids (Perez & Yalayan 2004;Becalski & Slaman 2005;Limacher et al 2007;Limacher 2008;Roberts et al 2008;Vranová & Ciesarová 2009;Owczarek-Fendor et al 2010a,b, 2012Adams et al 2011;Duan & Barringer 2012;Anese & Suman 2013).…”