Carnosine and Anserine in Chicken Can Quench Toxic Acrylamide under Cooking Conditions: Mass Spectrometric Studies on Adduct Formation and Characterization.

Acrylamide (AA) is a toxic industrial chemical but is also found in heated potato foods such as French fries due to the Maillard reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars. However, high-temperature cooking is often required for flavoring, browning, and sterilizing of raw ingredients. Imidazole dipeptides, such as carnosine (beta alanyl-L-histidine, CAR) and anserine (beta-alanyl-N-pi-methyl-L-histidine, ANS), are present in high concentrations in meat and are known to scavenge radical species and toxic aldehydes. Here, we investigated the reaction between CAR/ANS and AA under several conditions expected to detoxify AA by cooking with meat. The reaction products were characterized by LC-ESI-MS/MS as CAR/ANS-AA adducts at the N-terminus, and His-N-tau/N-pi. The reactivity of CAR sites toward AA were in the order N-terminus > N-tau > N-pi. A selective LC-ESI-SRM/MS method was also developed and confirmed the formation of CAR/ANS-AA adducts during pan frying of minced potato and chicken breast.