MUTAGENICITY OF SOY BEAN SAUCE

Soy bean sauce is commonly used as a food material in Taiwan where the incidence of hepatoma and gastric cancer is high. We have therefore investigated the mutagenicity of soy bean sauce in vitro. When treated with nitrite at the 2000 ppm level soy bean sauce produced a mutagenic substance as demonstrated using the Salmonella/mammalian microsome mutagenicity test. All 21 different brands of soy bean sauce showed similar results. Most mutagenic material was formed when the nitrite level was 2000 ppm and the pH was 3; ascorbic acid prevented the formation of mutagenic products in nitrite-treated soy bean sauce. © 1979.