Investigation of soy sauce treated with nitrite in the chromosomal aberration test in vitro and the micronucleus test in vivo

Soy sauce pretreated with 2300 ppm nitrite caused no more aberrations than did untreated soy sauce in the chromosomal aberration test in vitro using a Chinese hamster fibroblast cell line with or without S9 mixture. The aberration induction by soy sauce is likely to be caused by the 17% sodium chloride it contains. Soy sauce with or without pretreatment with 2300 ppm nitrite was orally given to ICR mice at a dose of 14 ml/kg body weight once or 6 ml/kg body weight/day for 5 consecutive days. This oral administration did not induce any significant increase in micronuclei in the micronucleus test in vivo.