Mutagenicity of cooked hamburger is controlled delicately by reducing sugar content in ground beef

Effect of sugars added to ground beef on the generation of mutagenicity of cooked hamburger was investigated. Mutagenicity of hamburger was assayed by the Ames test using Salmonella typhimurium TA98 strain with metabolic activation after the mutagens were purified by use of blue rayon. Intrinsic reducing sugar content in ground beef was estimated to be 0.07% (w/w). Mutagenicity of hamburger was sharply or delicately controlled by the amount of a reducing sugar added to ground beef. Mutagenicity was increased more than 2-folds by addition of 0.08% (w/w) glucose, fructose or lactose but decreased to about a half by addition of more than 0.67% (w/w) each of the reducing sugars. Mutagenicity of cooked hamburger was not influenced by addition of sucrose at the ranges between 0.08 and 0.67% (w/w). When red wine with 0.10% (w/w) equivalent amount of reducing sugars or white wine with 0.13% (w/w) equivalent amount of reducing sugars were added to the ground beef, mutagenicity of cooked hamburger was similarly increased 1.6-1.8-fold. Controlling the reducing sugar content in ground beef would be a simple way to regulate the mutagenicity of cooked hamburgers.