Significance of biogenic amines to food safety and human health

Biogenic amines are natural antinutrition factors and are important from a hygienic point of view as they have been implicated as the causative agents in a number of food poisoning episodes, and they are able to initiate various pharmacological reactions. Histamine, putrescine, cadaverine, tyramine, tryptamine, beta-phenylethylamine, spermine, and spermidine are considered to be the most important biogenic amines occurring in foods. These amines are designated as biogenic because they are formed by the action of living organisms. Histamine has been implicated as the causative agent in several outbreaks of food poisoning, while tyramine and beta-phenylethylamine have been proposed as the initiators of hypertensive crisis. The toxicity of biogenic amines to chicks in terms of loss of weight and mortality was also reported. The toxicity of histamine appeared to be enhanced by the presence of other amines such as cadaverine, putrescine, and tyramine. Biogenic amines may also be considered as carcinogens because of their ability to react with nitrites to form potentially carcinogenic nitrosamines. The biogenic amine content of various foods and feed have been widely studied and found in cheese, fish and meat products, eggs and mushrooms. Food substances that have been prepared by a fermentative process, or have been exposed to microbial contamination during aging or storage, are likely to contain amines. Alcoholic beverages such as beers can contain biogenic amines, as do some other fermented foods such as sauerkraut and soy bean products. Amines were also considered as endogenous to plant substance that is commonly used for food, where some fruits and vegetables were found to contain high concentrations of various amines. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology.