Page 207 - The Biochemistry of Inorganic Polyphosphates

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March 9, 2004
15:44
WU095-09
WU095/Kulaev
Polyphosphates in the food industry 191
smoked products, poultry and fish products. Puromix 80, consisting of sodium di-, tri- and
polyphosphates, can be effectively used with both normal raw meat and meat with defects
(pale, soft, watery, etc.) (http://tharnika.ru/; http://www.meat.ru).
The improvement of methods of food treatment with PolyPs (Young et al., 1999) and of
PolyP assays in food (Cozzani et al., 1996; Sekiguchi et al., 2000) is continuing.
It should be taken into account that the abundance of PolyPs in food may have some
unstudied effect on health. For example, if rats were fed with a high-phosphorus diet, they
developed nephrocalcinosis. This was more severe in rats fed on PolyP 3 than in those fed
on pyrophosphate (Matsuzaki et al., 2001). Thus, the influence of PolyPs in food on human
health needs further investigations, especially in view of those diseases associated with
phosphate metabolism.
In conclusion, it should be noted that we live in an environment with a permanent phos-
phorus excess. This factor, resulting from the wide use of phosphate-containing detergents,
fertilizers and food additives may have some negative effects on the environment and human
health. The biochemistry of PolyPs may offer new ways for overcoming unfavourable fac-
tors caused by phosphate contamination of the environment and for controlling infections
and some other diseases.