Study of meat content and frying process on the formation of polar heterocyclic aromatic amines in heated sausage samples: Optimization and method validation of three‐phase EME coupled with RP‐HPLC

The meat percent and frying process are two major factors that affected the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) in heated sausage samples. High consumption of heated sausage, a famous tasty food, enhances the interest to monitor the status of toxic level of this fast food. In this work, 3% of meat content and two types of frying processes have been investigated to determine the concentration of HAAs in 18 types of heated sausage samples. Three-phase electromembrane extraction coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography has been applied for the extraction step and "one variable at a time (OVAT)" methodology was used for the optimization of extraction parameters. The found concentration for HAAs was determined in the range 50.66-327.94 ng g(-1) for IQ, 12.64-532.85 ng g(-1) for MeIQ, and 18.2-877.97 ng g(-1) for MeIQx. The limits of detection (LODs) of HAAs in sausage samples were obtained between 1.5 and 1.6 ng g(-1). The recoveries of the proposed method were in the range 93%-97% and the enrichment factor was determined from 108 to 112 for three HAAs. The results showed that the meat percentage and the frying processes have significant effects on the formation of HAAs in sausage samples (p < 0.05). Practical applications Finding the relationship among frying process, meat content, and the level of HAAs in sausage helps to inform the toxic risk of this compound and decrease of them using the variation and optimization of these parameters in food production and cooking.