re " C . Byrne et al . , Predictors of Dietary Heterocyclic Amine Intake in Three Prospective Cohorts . Cancer Epidemiol . Biomark .

The paper by Byrne et al., "Predictors of Dietary Heterocyclic Amine Intake in Three Prospective Cohorts" (1), continues the trend toward estimation of carcinogen intake by dietary questionnaire. They seem to have missed the one paper that combined both analytical chemistry and dietary information (Ji et al.; Ref. 2). The take-home lessons are: (a) Until the analytical chemistry in the 1994 study was completed (2), the role of bacon and sausage as a source of heterocyclic amines was not known. (b) Ethnic practices in cooling and food selection are important. How valid could it be to compare individuals from Sweden to African-Americans in Los Angeles? (c) Byrne et al. (1) can keep manipulating the minute quantity of real analytical data currently available, but the sample is too small to be meaningful. (d) If Byrne et al. (1) want to improve the questionnaires, they should invest the time and effort in getting more data on real populations, not on a chef's idea of how to cook chicken. (e) Had Byrne et al. (1) read the paper by Ji et al. (2), they might actually have been able to test their model questionnaire.