ABSTRACT
Man is exposed daily to a large number of chemicals through consumption of foods and beverages. There are various N-nitroso compounds. The most common ones are the nitrosamines such as N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) and N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR). This chapter discusses various precursors of N-nitroso compounds are beyond the scope. The nitrosating agent responsible for the formation of nitrosamines in fried bacon might be N2O3, formed during heating of nitrite in bacon, or nitric oxide radical (NO) formed by dissociation of N2O3 at high temperature. The possibility of such formation of nitrosamines was first reported by the Norweigian workers while investigating formation of NDMA in nitrite-treated herring meal and later by Sen et al. in connection with their work on the formation of NDMA in nonnitrited fish meal. Among the other foods, cheese and fish that is both fresh and salted have been investigated most extensively and occasionally found to contain traces of nitrosamines, mainly NDMA.
