ESTIMATION OF FURAN LEVELS IN SOME CANNED FOODS IN EGYPT AND HOW TO REDUCE IT

Abstract

Furan is naturally occurring compound found at low levels in many foods. Furan has been formed in a wide range of thermally treated foods especially heated foods sealed in cans and jars. The primary source of furan in food is thermal degradation and rearrangement of organic compounds. Furan is a five-membered ring which can induce tumors and liver toxicity in experimental animals and is classified as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’ by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. In this study furan levels in several kinds of canned and jarred foods from Egyptian markets have been estimated. Also, several heat treatments have been applied for some food samples aiming to reduce furan content in these samples. Noticed levels of furan have been shown in tested samples. Coffee samples had higher content of furan in comparison to other products. After thermal treatments the obtained results show that, furan content reduced to about 38-50% of the original content for 50^o C at 5 min and the loss percent raised to about 55-71% at 20 min. At 60^o C, furan content reduced to about 47-56% of the original content at 5 min and the loss percent raised to about 62-78% at 20 min. And at 70^o C, furan content reduced to about 53-59% at 5 min and the loss percent raised to about 70-89% at 20 min.