BACKGROUND: Sucuk is one of the popular traditional Turkish meat products. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effects of different spices (clove, 0.2%; cinnamon, 0.5%) and animal fat types (beef fat, tallow, subcutaneous and tail fat) on the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amine (HCA) in barbecued sucuk. RESULTS: Although 2-amino-3-methyl-9H-pyrido[2,3-b]indole (MeAαC) could not be detected in the any of the samples, 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (IQx) (up to 0.54 ng g−1), 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ) (up to 5.96 ng g−1), 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx) (up to 0.21 ng g−1), 2-amino-3,4-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (MeIQ) (up to 0.34 ng g−1), 2-amino-3,7,8-trimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (7,8-DiMeIQx) (up to 0.32 ng g−1), 2-amino-3,4,8-trimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (4,8-DiMeIQx) (up to 0.19 ng g−1), 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP) (up to 1.94 ng g−1) and 2-amino-9H-pyrido[2,3-b]indole (AαC) (up to 0.98 ng g−1) were found in the barbecued sucuk samples. CONCLUSION: The results of the current study have shown that HCAs could be formed in barbecued sucuk. Total HCA can be affected by adding different fat types; however, adding clove and cinnamon decreased the total HCA content in the subcutaneous fat group of sucuk samples. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.