Some food processing methods can cause many chemical compounds to form in food, including mutagenic and carcinogenic heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA). Those substances are formed during the thermal treatment of products with a high content of protein, whereby the quantity and the type thereof are mainly dependent on the temperature and, sometimes, on the type of process. The paper presents the general profile of HCAs and classes they are divided into based on their chemical structure and formation conditions. Furthermore, various thermal processing methods of meat were discussed in terms of the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines and methods to inhibit those formation processes, because there is a correlation between frequent consumption of processed meat and cancer incidences in humans. The last part of the paper is a review of analytical techniques used to purify and extract samples containing the compounds listed as well as the most popular techniques used to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze them.