Chloropropanols and their esters in foods: Exposure, formation and mitigation strategies

As food contaminants, chloropropanol esters are generally produced during the deodorisation of vegetable oils, and can be further hydrolysed by lipases to generate chloropropanols. With continuous technological progress for their determination, various foods have been detected with chloropropanols, including refined vegetable oils, oily foods and infant formula. High exposures to these contaminants may pose health risks to humans, particularly infants. Therefore, mitigation strategies of chloropropanols are necessary for food safety. During thermal processing, chlorine-containing compounds are probable precursors, which can be reduced to attenuate chloropropanols production. In addition, antioxidants can also exert inhibitory effects. Chloropropanols have been demonstrated to have potential carcinogenic toxicity, while flavonoids have been proven to effectively relieve their toxic damages. In this review, three formation mechanisms of chloropropanols are introduced. Meanwhile, the toxicity as well as mitigation strategies are discussed, consequently providing a theoretical basis for the effective control of them.