Beware burnt barbie offerings

Mutant mice have been used by scientists to prove burnt meat can kill you.

It has long been known that eating burnt meat increases the risk of cancer, but scientists inserted human enzymes into mice during experiments and found the risk from eating burnt meat might be even higher than previously thought.

The finding comes as New Zealanders fire up their barbecues for a summer of often overcooked meat.

Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health compared their "human" mice with normal laboratory mice to determine if people could be more sensitive to certain carcinogenic substances from heat-treated foods.

The results showed the incidence of tumours in the "human" mice was higher than the lab mice – about 80 per cent had intestinal tumours after eating the blackened crust from meat, compared to about a third of the normal mice.

The report said because, until now, normal lab mice had been used to test for the carcinogenic properties of burnt meat, the health risk to humans had been underestimated.

"This shows that normal mice are not a good model for assessing the health risk to humans after the ingestion of mutagens from well-done meat and fish. Heat processing of food can lead to the formation of carcinogenic substances which ... usually occurs at high temperatures when frying or grilling."

The food mutagen was in its highest quantities in the crust of meat and fish.

The Cancer Society says people should avoid eating charred or burnt meat.

- © Fairfax NZ News