VOLATILE NITROSAMINES IN SOME TRADITIONAL SOUTHERN CHINESE FOOD PRODUCTS

Abstract
Previous epidemiological studies of nasopharyngeal carcinoma suggest that traditional food items, particularly salted fish, consumed by southern Chinese may play a role in the cause of the high frequency of the disease among them. We report here the results of an analysis by combined gas chromatography and high resolution mass spectrometry of six types of salted fish and ten other items of traditional southern Chinese salted food products for the presence of volatile nitrosamines. Only N‐nitroso‐dimethylamine (NDMA) was detected in some of the samples of salted fish examined. No volatile nitrosamine other than those added as internal standards was detected in any of the others.