The preferential formation of volatile N‐nitrosamines in the fat of fried bacon

Abstract Whole bacon rashers and the separated lean and fat components were fried in an electrically heated pan and the residues in the pan and the trapped cooking vapours analysed for N‐nitrosopyrrolidine and N‐nitrosodimethylamine. The fat produced 12 times more N‐nitrosopyrrolidine and six times more N‐nitrosodimethylamine than the lean. In all cases the largest proportions of both nitrosamines were recovered from the cooking vapours. Prolonged heating of lean did not increase amounts of the nitrosamines. The importance of the non‐polar lipid phase of the adipose tissue in nitrosamine formation was demonstrated by heating fat and lean components of bacon in a non‐polar heating medium when high levels of nitrosamines were produced from the lean as well as the fat.