POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC Nuclear Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are environmental pollutants that are found in the air, water, soil and, unavoidably, food. Various sources contribute to PAH contamination in the environment including oil spills, industrial processes, tobacco smoking and the incomplete combustion of organic matter, in particular fossil fuels.
Concern about these compounds has grown among many safety governing bodies around the world since these compounds have been found to be mutagenic and/or carcinogenic in experimental animals. As a result, several measures have been put in place to quantify PAHs in environmental and food samples.
PAHs found in foods may be caused by environmental contamination as well as they may be formed through heat treatment of varying severity. Food processing methods that can generate PAHs include smoking, grilling for example barbecue, and boiling.
Fatty foods that are cooked using these methods are particularly susceptible to PAH formation. It is proposed that at high temperatures the fats in foods are thermally degraded and undergo polymerisation processes to produce PAHs. The amount of PAHs produced depends on the thermal process, the degree of fat in the meats, the severity of the heat treatment (extended exposure, closeness to heat source) and the quantity of smoke emitted from the fuels in use.
Ingestion of moderate amount of fatty foods cooked at high temperatures, to date, have not been cause for concern.
