Mutagenic heterocyclic amines are generated in foods when they are cooked at temperatures over 150 degrees C. These compounds are present from 0.1 to 50 ppb, depending on the food and cooking conditions. These heterocyclic amines are not only present in cooked red meat, fish, and chicken, but are also present at lower levels in baked and fried foods derived from grain. Mutagenicity of fried beef hamburgers cooked at 230 degrees C is 800 +/- 37 TA98 revertants per gram cooked weight. We measured 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MelQx), 2-amino-3,4,8-trimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (DiMelQx), and 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ) formation at this temperature and found 3.0 +/- 2.0, 1.0 +/- 0.18, and 0.06 +/- 0.03 ng/g, respectively. 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidaz[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP) was found at a higher concentration of 9.6 ng/g. In our laboratory we have shown these heterocyclic amines are capable of producing both reverse and forward mutations in Salmonella bacteria and forward mutations in Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO). We have also been able to show a statistically significant increase in mutations in the pancreas of the "mutamouse" following PhIP exposure. The pancreas also shows relatively high DNA binding compared to other organs in the mouse. The number and type of mutations depend on the repair capacity of the cells for both Salmonella and CHO. In Salmonella the mutations are primarily 2-base deletions when the cells lack uvrB repair, but mutations are more complex (larger deletions and insertions) but lower in frequency when repair is functional.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)