Carnosine and anserine in chicken can quench toxic acrylamide under cooking conditions: Mass spectrometric studies on adduct formation and characterization.

Acrylamide (AA) is a toxic industrial chemical but is also found in heated potato foods such as French fries due to the Maillard reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars. However, high-temperature cooking is often required for flavoring, browning, and sterilizing of raw ingredients. Imidazole dipeptides, such as carnosine (β-alanyl-l-histidine, CAR) and anserine (β-alanyl-Nπ-methyl-l-histidine, ANS), are present in high concentrations in meat and are known to scavenge radical species and toxic aldehydes. Here, we investigated the reaction between CAR/ANS and AA under several conditions expected to detoxify AA by cooking with meat. The reaction products were characterized by LC-ESI-MS/MS as CAR/ANS-AA adducts at the N-terminus, and His-Nτ/Nπ. The reactivity of CAR sites toward AA were in the order N-terminus > Nτ > Nπ. A selective LC-ESI-SRM/MS method was also developed and confirmed the formation of CAR/ANS-AA adducts during pan frying of minced potato and chicken breast.