Czech J. Food Sci., 2009, 27(1):1-10 | DOI: 10.17221/2843-CJFS

Furan in food - a review

Janka VRANOVÁ, Zuzana CIESAROVÁ
Food Research Institute, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Furan and its derivatives were identified in a small number of heat-treated foods back in the 60's and 70's. In May 2004, US Food and Drug Administration published a report on the occurrence of parent furan in a number of thermally treated foods. Since furan has been classified as "possibly carcinogenic to human" by IARC, a great concern has been addressed to the analysis of this substance naturally-occurring in food. This paper gives a short overview on the mechanistic pathways of the parent furan formation in food by degradation of amino acids and/or reducing sugars, and oxidation of ascorbic acid and poly-unsaturated acids which can be induced by thermal or irradiation treatments; further, it deals with the metabolism and toxicology of furan as well as with the comparison of the methods of furan determination.

Keywords: furan; heat processing contaminants; headspace; solid-phase microextraction; mechanisms of furan formation

Published: February 28, 2009  Show citation

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VRANOVÁ J, CIESAROVÁ Z. Furan in food - a review. Czech J. Food Sci. 2009;27(1):1-10. doi: 10.17221/2843-CJFS.
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