Uncured and nitrite-cured pork were subjected, raw, cooked (65C, 15 min) or overcooked (90C,
30 min), to anin vitro digestion model, which includes mouth, stomach, duodenum, and colon phases.
Heating of uncured meat resulted in a pronounced increase in lipid and protein oxidation products
throughout digestion. Nitrite-curing had an antioxidant effect during digestion, but this effect disap-peared when the meat was overcooked, resulting in up to ninefold higher 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal concen-trations compared with digested nitrite-cured raw and cooked pork. Colonic digesta contained
significantly higher concentrations of the NOC-specific DNA adduct O
6
-carboxy-methylguanine when
pork underwent a more intense heating procedure, independent of nitrite-curing, depending strongly
on the fecal inoculum used. Since processed meats are usually nitrite-cured, the present study suggests
that overcooking processed meat is likely to result in the formation of genotoxic compounds during
digestion and should, therefore, be avoided