We can all generally agree that smoking is bad for you, but what about smoked meats? Should you be concerned about your health if you enjoy smoked brisket, salmon, or a delicious smoked deli sandwich?
Smoking food is one of the oldest methods of cooking on the planet. Our earliest hominid ancestors, homo erectus, started using fire to cook food about 400,000 years, as evidence suggests. It was a crucial step in our development as a species, allowing for a higher calorie intake and more nutrients.
Cooking raw meat made our food more digestible and healthier. Intense heat kills off harmful bacteria, makes food more tender and flavorful. But there is a catch.
The problem isn’t really with the fire but the fuel consumption and inadequate ventilation. Eating smoked meat prepared on a quality electric smoker, for instance, can be less harmful than smoking, but still poses a significant health risk. When comparing electric smoker reviews
look for quality brands engineered with adequate ventilation. If you want to learn more about the best electric smokers and how to cook healthy meals, Fire Food Chef has tons of great information to help guide you on your way.
Burning wood or charcoal in any instance produces carcinogens that are harmful to consume. Fossil fuels contain wood in them, or at least the chemical compounds, as well as organic matter from dead plants and animals. So whether you burn wood, charcoal, or propane gas, carcinogens are a byproduct.
Health experts have identified PAH’s, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), as the major health risk from smoked meat. Long recognized as a cancer agent, PAHs can also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. PAH’s can easily be absorbed into your food or inhaled while grilling, in the same way that inhaling cigarette smoke is bad for you.
The darker the smoke, the higher the presence of PAH’s. If your gas, charcoal or pellet grill is emitting black smoke, you’ve got way too much fuel. The densely packed fuel produces high temperatures that kill off bacteria as well as moisture and nutrients from your meat. The result is smoked food that tastes ashy or acrid, void of nutrients, and full of PAH’s.
Automobiles are fitted with a special filter specifically designed to remove or reduce harmful carcinogens and greenhouse gases. Could the same be done for BBQ grills and electric smokers?
That’s exactly the question researchers examined in 2018. Engineers from a company called Besmoke (specializing in natural wood flavors for grilling), partnered with Professor Jane K. Parker of the University of Reading (UK) to explore a solution that would effectively make smoking meat on a grill healthier by reducing carcinogens found in smoke.
As Professor Parker explains in her interview, "The smoking process can cause carcinogens to form in foods. Not all smoked foods are dangerous, but we do know most can contain low levels of these substances, so we should try to remove them. If we could produce a smoke with fewer carcinogens, but that still has the same great taste, that would be ideal".
The result of their research was the development of a unique ‘zeolite filter’, a device commonly found in tailpipes to reduce environmental pollutants. Says Jane K. Parker, Ph.D., "Zeolite filters, which are put in a tailpipe, have been used in the car industry…(but) haven't been applied to food yet. We want to change that."
Testing of the zeolite filter has proven successful at reducing carcinogens by as much as 93%. Zeolite, a porous aluminosilicate mineral, can substantially reduce PAH’s without compromising the flavor or taste of smoked meat. Using mass spectrometry, researchers identified that zeolite is extremely effective at removing the higher molecular weight components found in smoke.
Zeolite filters haven’t been introduced to BBQ grills yet, but it’s certainly a welcome change. Let’s hope Professor Parker and her team are successful with further testing to adapt the zeolite filter for electric smokers, gas and charcoal grills so we can all enjoy smoked meat without the cancer!