Genotoxicity evaluation of fried meat: A comprehensive review

Some years ago, the IARC published the carcinogenic potential of processed and red meat. It is known that frying meat can produce genotoxic substances. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to evaluate in vitro and in vivo genotoxicity of fried meat. A total of 31 scientific articles were retrieved and analyzed. The meat extraction methods have been grouped into 6 types based on their similarity to an initially described method or on the general methodology used (solid-liquid extraction or others). The in vitro mutagenic results have been summarised by type of meat studied (beef, pork, others), cooking conditions (method, time and temperature), extraction method, and test used, with or without S9. Most articles assessed the mutagenicity of the extracts using the Ames test. Meat extracts were consistently positive in strains TA98/TA1538 with metabolic activation. In the in vitro studies with meat from restaurants, positive results were always found with variations in the number of His⁺ revertants between samples or between restaurants. The few in vivo studies retrieved show evidence of induced DNA damage in colon cells and chromosome aberrations in bone marrow cells after daily treatment with fried red meat for 4 weeks or longer.