[Presence of volatile nitrosamines in food]

122 foods and 46 beers from the north-east of France and other areas are analysed. The solid frozen samples are finely ground, homogenized and suspended in mineral oil. The volatile nitrosamines are vacuum distilled and extracted with dichloromethane from the acidified distillate. The sample is concentrated and analysed with a gas chromatograph coupled to a TEA detector. The liquid samples are directly extracted with dichloromethane. The non grilled cured meat products are lightly polluted. The nitrosodimethylamine and nitrosopiperidine concentrations usually do not exceed 1 ppb. Only two samples out of about thirty are very polluted by the nitrosopiperidine (28,6 and 26 ppb), and also by the nitrosopyrrolidine (3 and 11 ppb). In the other samples this last nitrosamine is seldom and occurs only in trace amounts. The precooked canned meals and the cheese products are rarely and only lightly polluted. However beers are polluted most of the time. The nitrosodimethylamine is found in all the pale beers, with a concentration ranging from 0.1 to 21.3 ppb (m: 3.1). In dark beers the nitrosodimethylamine concentration ranges from 7.2 to 16.8 ppb (m: 10.1) and the nitrosopyrrolidine concentration has a mean value of 0.2 ppb.