Screening of Mutagenicity of Processed Foods by the Use of Blue Cotton

Abstract

The mutagenicities of 122 kinds of processed foods were tested in the Salmonella/microsome system of Ames. The mutagens were purified by using blue cotton, which is adsorbent cotton bearing covalently bound trisulfo-copper-phthalocyanine. Coffee, red wine, smoked dried bonito (katsuobushi), canned broiled fishes and flavor seasoning (dashinomoto) were mutagenic in Salmonella typhimurium TA98 with S9 mix. The characteristics of the mutagenicity of coffee differed from those reported earlier. The mutagenicity of katsuobushi may be due to compounds other than benzo [a] pyrene. The mutagens found in these processed foods may be polycyclic aromatic mutagens, because blue cotton has specific affinity for them.