Reduction of Carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Meat by Sugar-Smoking and Dietary Exposure Assessment in Taiwan

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) represent an important pollutant in foods and/or the environment. This study aimed to determine the PAH contents in sugar-smoked meat by employing a quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe (QuEChERS) method combined with a GC-MS technique and assess the dietary exposure of PAHs in Taiwan. Results showed that the longer the sugar-smoking duration, the more the total PAH formation. By sugar-smoking for 6 min, the total PAH contents generated in red meat (33.9 ± 3.1–125.5 ± 9.2 ppb) were higher than in poultry meat (19.1 ± 2.0–28.2 ± 1.2 ppb) and seafood (9.1 ± 1.4–31.8 ± 1.8 ppb), with lamb steak containing the largest amount of total PAHs. Most importantly, the highly carcinogenic benzo[a]pyrene remained undetected in all of the sugar-smoked meat samples. In addition, the cancer risk due to dietary PAH exposure based on total intake of meat in Taiwan was –7. This outcome demonstrates that sugar-smoking can be adopted to replace the traditional smoking process with wood as smoke source.