Determination of heterocyclic aromatic amines formed in deep-fat fried meatballs used different frying oils and the changes in fatty acid compositions of meatballs and frying oils

In the present study, the effects of different frying oils (sunflower oil, hazelnut oil, canola oil, commercially mixed oil, corn oil, riviera olive oil and virgin olive oil) on formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAs) in deep-fat fried meatballs. In addition, some quality criteria analyses in meatballs and oils were also determined. While water, pH, crude fat and fatty acid composition and lipid oxidation (TBARS) analyses were done in raw meatballs, not only water, pH, crude fat and fatty acid composition and TBARS analyses but also cooking loss and HCAs analyses were also done in deep-fat fried meatballs used different frying oils. For frying oils, only fatty acid composition analyses were done before and after deep-fat frying. GC-FID and HPLC-DAD were used for the analyses of fatty acid composition and HCAs, respectively. As a result, as expected, in the meat, intramuscular fat, raw meatballs and deep-fat fried meatballs, dominant saturated fatty acids were palmitic and stearic acids, while dominant monounsaturated fatty acid and polyunsaturated fatty acid were oleic acid and linoleic acid, respectively. Deep-fat frying of meatballs used different frying oils caused, as expected, a reduction in water content of the meatballs, while pH and TBARS values increased. Frying oils used for deep-fat frying had very significant effect (p<0,01) on water content, pH, fatty acid composition, TBARS value and total HCAs content of the meatballs, while they had significant effect (p<0,05) on cooking loss of the meatballs. On the other hand, frying oils had no any effect (p>0,05) on crude fat content of the samples. Only MeIQx content was detected in deep-fat fried samples, whereas other HCAs analysed in the present study could not be determined (under limit of detection). It was determined that total HCAs amount of the samples ranged between 30,43 and 43,71 ng/g. The lowest total HCAs content belonged to the samples fried in hazelnut oil, while the highest total HCAs content belonged to the samples fried in commercially mixed oil. The correlation between the total HCAs content and cooking loss was statistically positive and important (p<0,05), while the other correlations of total HCAs content with other analyses in the present study were not significantly important (p>0,05).