Formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in an intramuscular fat model system containing epicatechin

This study investigated the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a mutton intramuscular fat model system containing epicatechin under various reaction conditions using multivariate statistical analysis, and established the optimal equations for PAHs prediction. Results indicated that at 100-180 °C for 10-60 min, epicatechin inhibited the formation of naphthalene, acenaphthylene, phenanthrene, anthracene, benz[a]anthracene and benzo[g,h,i]perylene by 10-37 %, 11-32 %, 9-100 %, 27-56 %, 100 % and 6-18 %, respectively. Polynomial equation third-order model with R² at 0.87-0.98 and R² at 0.80-0.95 well fitted for the formation of PAHs under various temperatures and times, respectively. The correlation coefficients of calibration set (R²_c) and validation set (R²_v) were 0.92 and 0.81 for naphthalene, 0.84 and 0.84 for acenaphthylene, 0.99 and 0.98 for phenanthrene, 0.97 and 0.95 for anthracene, 0.91 and 0.80 for benzo[g,h,i]perylene, respectively, which suggested good mathematical models for the PAHs formation rules. These results provide theoretical support to develop technologies for PAHs real-time monitoring during roasted mutton processing.