Biogenic amine levels in dry fermented sausages produced and sold in Greece

摘要

Biogenic amines (BA) are biologically active compounds produced in foods during fermentation and/oraging. High BA contents in foods may cause various food–born diseases to sensitive groups of consumersand may also indicate the presence of undesired contaminating flora in foods. In the framework ofmonitoring the presence of BA in dry fermented sausages, the concentrations of putrescine (PU), tyramine(TY), histamine (HI), cadaverine (CA), tryptamine (TR) β-phenyl-ethylamine (PHE), spermidine (SD) andspermine (SP) were determined in 40 samples of various types of dry fermented sausages manufactured andsold in Greece. A wide variation of BA concentrations was observed among the examined samples. PU andTY were present in the highest concentrations in most of the samples ranging from 0 to 492 mg/kg (median:176.6 mg/kg) and from 4 to 381mg/kg (median: 175.2 mg/kg) respectively. HI, CA, TR, PHE, SD and SPcontents were usually lower ranging from 0 to 376 mg/kg (median: 36.3 mg/kg), 0 to 1014 mg/kg (median:15.3 mg/kg), 0 to 60 mg/kg (median: 6.8 mg/kg), 0 to 56 mg/kg (median: 2.8 mg/kg), 1.5 to 20 mg/kg(median: 5.7 mg/kg), 13 to 60 mg/kg. (median: 35.9 mg/kg), respectively. Thirty seven per cent of theexamined samples far exceeded the toxicity limit of 100 mg/kg legally set for HI in fish species. Moreover, in63% of the samples the sum of TY, HI and PHE concentrations exceeded the acceptable limit of 200 mg/Kg,for good manufacturing practices and human health protection, that has been proposed for fermentedproducts. It is concluded that an improvement of production technology and raw material hygienic qualityused for manufacturing various types of Greek dry fermented sausages is necessary, in order to ensure thequality and safety of these products with respect to their BA content.