Cooking food is the major process adopted to produce flavor chemicals, which give foods a characteristic desirable roasted or toasted flavor. More than 1,000 low molecular weight compounds are known to be produced once a food is heated, and the number of known compounds is increasing steadily. The amounts of these chemicals formed are generally in very trace levels (around the level of µg/kg of food or parts per billion, ppb), but for most of these compounds, detailed information about possible toxicity at this level is not yet established.
One of these compounds is 4-Methylimidazole (4-MEI), which forms from a reaction between amino acids or proteins and sugars, carbohydrates, or lipids when exposed to heat. This past March, an independent study commissioned by the consumer interest group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) found that four of the best-selling sodas (Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi), which ...
