Researchers have developed a way to reduce the amount of furan, a
potentially harmful carcinogen, that occurs in one's daily diet.
Furan (C4H4O) is a chemical substance that can be produced
unintentionally when foods are heated while being manufactured. The U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) considers furan to be
potentially carcinogenic, while the International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) has also categorized it as apotential "group 2B"
carcinogen.
Interest in furan and in developing a technology that could reduce its
occurrence has been growing worldwide since it was reported that
researchers in the U.S. and Germany discovered furan in some foods.
Research has so far focused on the potential carcinogen's condition, how
much of it occurs in which foods and the existence of carcinogenic
risks, but studies on how to reduce the number of furan have not gotten
very far.
Scientists at the
Ministry of Food and Drug Safety
(MFDS) studied furan content in processed foods and found that furan
could be involuntarily produced even when making a cup of coffee. Once
furan is produced, the substance can be evaporated in water. If it is
mixed with a material containing fat, however, it does not evaporate and
remains in the food. In short, furan could remain in a cup of coffee
due to the fat content in cream or powdered cream that is mixed with
coffee. Furan was also found in tomato juice and instant pumpkin soup.
Tomatoes and pumpkins have a lot of carotenoid pigments and furan can be
produced when such pigments are heated.
In 2013, researchers at the MFDS and a team of scientists and engineers
led by Professor Kim Young-suk at the Department of Food Science and
Engineering of Ewha Womans University, conducted a study on coffee,
tomato juice and pumpkin soup, foods whose furan content considerably
rises when they are produced. When coffee, tomato juice and pumpkin soup
were heated to 120 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, their furan content
increased by 2 to 20 times.
However, when sodium sulfite was added to pumpkin soup, its furan
content decreased by 90 percent. When chlorogenic acid and
epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) were added to the coffee and tomato
juice, their furan content dropped to 74 percent and 15 percent of the
original, respectively.
The researchers have filed domestic patents and intend to file
international patents on their new technology. The MFDS intends to
continue to provide the technology to the private sector.
Researchers have developed a way to reduce the occurrence of furans in
processed foods. (photo courtesy of professor Kim Young-suk)
A scientist analyzes the furan content of certain foods. (photo courtesy of professor Kim Young-suk)
By Limb Jae-un
Korea.net Staff Writer
jun2@korea.kr
[Source: korea.net]