Mitigation strategies of furan and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural in food

Furan and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) are heterocyclic compounds that are formed in a variety of heat-treated commercial foods. In 1995, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified furan as "possibly carcinogenic to humans". HMF was supposed to induce genotoxic and mutagenic effects in bacterial and human cells and promote colon cancer in rats. As this gave rise for concern, more researches have been carried out in order to study the metabolism and toxicity, as well as elucidate the mechanistic pathways of these important food-related compounds. In this review we analyzed the strategies that are suggested in the literature to mitigate furan and HMF levels in food, focusing on the most innovative and potentially exploitable at industrial level. In particular, the mitigation strategies have been classified either as preventive or removal interventions. The former allow furan and HMF concentrations to be kept as low as possible during heating; the latter are aimed to move away or decompose the already formed undesired molecules. Despite the great number of papers dealing with the influence of composition and process variables on furan and HMF formation, only a few efficient ways of mitigation of these molecules have been described as potentially exploitable at the industrial level. These are preventive strategies based on changes in formulation (e.g. ammonium bicarbonate, phosphate, β-carotene substitution, and/or ascorbic acid addition in combination with amino acids, sugars, and lipids) and reduction of the thermal impact (i.e. conventional-dielectric combined heating), as well as post-process removal interventions of the already formed furan and HMF from the finished product by means of vacuum treatments.