The human diet exposes us to complex mixtures of organic and inorganic substances that provide nutritional sustenance, but can also play important roles in the causation, modulation and prevention of human disease. One group of chemicals that currently is under scrutiny as having potential dietary carcinogenic activity is the heterocyclic amines, which are sometimes formed during cooking.
The research emphasis placed on heterocyclic amines results from the findings that they were shown to be very potent mutagens in the Ames/Salmonella assay, cause other genotoxic effects and are multi-site carcinogens in rodents and non-human primates.