title: Investigation of the presence of biogenic amines and ethyl carbamate in kenkey made with maize and maize-cowpea mixtures as influenced by process conditions.
abstract: Kenkey is a fermented and cooked maize dough from Ghana. The effect of manufacturing conditions, i.e. fermentation and cooking, and of protein-enrichment by cowpea addition (20% of total weight) on the occurrence of toxic microbial products, namely biogenic amines and ethyl carbamate, were investigated. The levels of biogenic amines in all-maize kenkey were very low (total amines < 60 ppm), but were significantly increased by addition of red cowpea (total amines < 200 ppm, mainly cadaverine and tyramine), and even more by white cowpea (total amines < 500 ppm, mainly putrescine and tyramine). Histamine was absent (< 5 ppm) in all samples. The effects of fermentation and cooking were less pronounced than the influence of cowpea addition. Prolonged cooking of kenkey resulted in lower levels of putrescine, but did not significantly reduce tyramine levels. Ethyl carbamate levels were negligible (< 11 ppb) in all treatments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science, Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Nout
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Nche
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Hollman
mesh_terms: D001679:Biogenic Amines / Q000032:analysis*; D005285:Fermentation; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005511:Food Handling; D005869:Ghana; D018532:Pisum sativum / Q000382:microbiology; D014520:Urethane / Q000032:analysis*; D003313:Zea mays / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D001679:Biogenic Amines; D014520:Urethane