Occurrence of volatile N-nitrosamines in dried chillies.

Twenty samples of dried chillies, fresh chillies and chilli sauces have been analysed for the presence of volatile N-nitrosamines. Over 75% of both dried whole chillies and chilli powder samples analysed contained N-nitrosodimethylamine and N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR) at concentrations of 0.66-16.5 micrograms/kg and 0.48-6.0 micrograms/kg, respectively. Fresh chillies and chilli sauces were not found to contain volatile N-nitrosamines.