Urinary Metabolomics Profiles Associated to Bovine Meat Ingestion in Humans

The impact of meat consumption on human health is widely examined in nutritional epidemiological studies, especially due to the connection between the consumption of red and processed meat and the risk of colon cancer. Food questionnaires do not assess the exposure to different methods of meat cooking. This study aimed to identify biomarkers of the acute ingestion of bovine meat cooked with two different processes.

Non-targeted UPLC-MS metabolite profiling was done on urine samples obtained from 24 healthy volunteers before and 8 h after the ingestion of a single meal composed of intrinsically ¹⁵ N labelled bovine meat, either cooked at 55 °C for 5 min or at 90 °C for 30 min. A discriminant analysis extension of independent components analysis was applied to the mass spectral data. After meat ingestion, the urinary excretion of 1-methylhistidine, phenylacetylglutamine, and short- and medium-chained acylcarnitines was observed. ¹⁵ N labelling was detected in these metabolites, thus confirming their origin from ingested meat. However, no difference was observed in urinary metabolomic profiles according to the meat cooking process used.

Meat ingestion led to the excretion of several nitrogen-containing compounds, but although a metabolic signature was detected for meat ingestion, the impact of the cooking process was not detectable at the level of urinary metabolic signature in our experimental conditions.