Heterocyclic amines in cooked foods: possible human carcinogens.

In the context of research in the broad area of nutrition and cancer, a major new discovery was made during 1976, quite recently, when T. Sugimura (National Cancer Center, Tokyo, Japan) observed the un expected presence of considerable mutagenicity at the surface of grilled or broiled fish or meat, using the usual procedures of cooking such foods. Isolation and identification of the mutagens showed that their chemical structure was that of a new class of chemicals, HCAs.2