## 3 Results and Discussion
### HCA Content of Coated Chicken Liver Samples  
Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAs), a type of cooking-induced contaminant with strong carcinogenic and mutagenic properties, are commonly found in high-protein food products [9]. According to studies, it has been concluded that when meat and fish marinated with antioxidant-containing substances are cooked at high temperatures, antioxidants suppress free radical formation and reduce the formation of HCAs. Thus, the formation of HCAs was shown to be inhibited by various natural substances [94]. Free radical intermediates generated in the Maillard reaction were involved in the formation of heterocyclic amines. It was suggested that antioxidants could scavenge free radicals and inhibit radical reactions during HCA formation, thus effectively inhibiting the formation of heterocyclic amines [10; 95]. The recoveries for IQ, MelQx, 4,8-DiMelQx, harman, norharman, and PhIP were found between 61.25 and 81.18%. Limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) values were found to be 0.0036 and 0.0120 ng/g for IQ, 0.0048 and 0.0160 ng/g for MelQx, 0.0024, and 0.0080 ng/g for 4,8-DiMelQx, 0.0003 and 0.0010 ng/g for PhIP, 0.0021 and 0.0070 ng/g for harman, and 0.0007 and 0.0023 ng/g for norharman, respectively. A representative chromatogram from the HPLC analysis of one of the samples of FTH is given in Figure 2. IQ, MelQx, 4,8-DiMelQx, PhIP, norharman, and harman contents and total HCA (MelQx, 4,8-DiMelQx, IQ, harman, norharman, and PhIP) amounts of coated chicken liver samples are given in Table 13.  
The addition of thyme and turmeric to the formulation of coated chicken liver samples, which were both deep-fried and cooked in the oven, significantly decreased the IQ, MeIQx, 4.8-DiMelQx, and total HCA content compared to the control group (\(p<0.05\)). Results have shown that cooking methods affected the HCA contents of the samples, except the PhIP and harman contents. Thyme and turmeric additives had a significant reducing effect on the IQ contents of the samples, with the thyme effect being stronger (\(p<0.05\)). The cooking method was only effective on the samples containing thyme, and the IQ value of the thyme-added deep-fried sample was found to be lower than that of the sample cooked in the oven (\(p<0.05\)). Similarly, in the study by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [96], a significantly lower amount of IQ compound was determined in deep-fried (7.97 ng/g) compared to oven-cooked (57.97 ng/g) chicken meatballs containing a pomernate seed extract. The highest MelQx and 4.8-DiMelQx content in the deep-fried and oven-cooked sample groups were found in the control group, followed by the sample groups containing thyme and turmeric, respectively (\(p<0.05\)). The PhIP content of samples was not affected significantly by thyme and turmeric in different formulations and applied cooking methods (\(p>0.05\)). While turmeric decreased the norharman content of deep-fried samples significantly compared to the control group, thyme was more effective in reducing the norharman content of the oven-cooked samples (\(p<0.05\)). Similarly, the harman content of thyme-added oven-cooked samples were lower than that of the control (\(p<0.05\)). Thyme and turmeric demonstrated an inhibitory effect on the formation of different HCAs in samples and this result was reflected in the total HCA contents of the samples. Turmeric demonstrated the highest inhibitory effect on the total HCA content of samples cooked with both of the cooking methods. As a result of deep-frying or oven cooking, a decrease of 14.42% and 13.20% in the case of adding thyme and 18.75% and 23.35% in the case of adding turmeric was determined in the total HCA amount, respectively. It was concluded that the most appropriate spice and cooking method combination to achieve the lowest total HCA levels in coated chicken liver samples was turmeric and oven cooking.