Influence of frying fat on mutagenic activity in lean pork meat

Mutagenic activity in lean pork meat fried at two different pan temperatures, 200°C and 250°C, with or without the addition of fat, was measured in Ames' Salmonella test on strain TA98. 9 different fats with varying chemical composition were tested. All fried meat samples were shown to be mutagenic. At the frying temperature of 200°C differences between meat samples fried in different fats or without fat, respectively, were small. All meat samples fried at 250°C were considerably more mutagenic than the samples fried at 200°C. At 250°C, the addition of fat caused a significant rise in mutagenic activity. We believe this is mainly an effect of more efficient heat transfer from the bottom of the frying-pan to the meat samples, although other factors may also contribute.