Meat Grilling Safety

Meat Grilling Safety

The largest populations of in the world tend to have a high affinity for grilled meat because of its appealing taste. However, Incautious practice of grilling meat is associated with high levels of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons refers to the kinds of chemicals that are formed when muscle meat is cooked or exposed to direct and high temperatures which include grilling the meat over direct flames (Lee, 2016). Thesis: Reduction of smoke during cooking of meat is a crucial practice to lower the levels of associated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. There is a large portion of the human population who are in love with grilled meat. It is, therefore, of a concern to address the issue of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in meat because thousands of people consume grilled meat daily. The frequent and prolonged consumption of grilled meat means that more and more people are exposed toPolycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons daily. In that context, the exposure to the chemical could significantly compromise the health of the consumers. That is an adequate justification for this paper. The Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons are associated with several adverse effects on the health of the grilled meat consumers. One of the impacts is that the chemicals put their victims at the risk of contracting different types of cancer(Lee, 2016). Since we have the extreme impact of the chemical, it is in order to state that research shows that cooking meat with stable combustion is an effective way to reduce the formation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons on grilled meat.

The adverse effect of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons is that they cause cancer in the human body (Oz & M. Onur, 2016). The chemicals have been proven to be mutagenic. In this context, mutagenic means that the chemical can introduce irregular changes in the structure of human DNA(Oz & M. Onur, 2016). Changes in the human DNA will, in turn, cause irregular growth and division of human cells, which is the fundamental process that leads to cancer in the human body.

Having defined the worst-case scenario of the effects of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, research also shows that the levels of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in grilled meat can be reduced significantly. The level of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons produced in grilled meat is directly proportional to the levels of the smoke produced when cooking meat over direct fire flames (Pirsaheb et al., 2020). Therefore, research has established that reducing the amount of smoke produced when cooking meat is a considerable measure to lower the levels of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons produced in the meat(Pirsaheb et al., 2020). Other than that, there is also another measure that is employed to lower the levels of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in meat. This measure involves the application of treatment procedures which remove meat drippings and filter out smoke before it gets to the meat. However, the second method requires the use of alternative equipment for grilling meat..

As it is presented above, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons act like causative agents of cancer. This is a significant concern to the general public because as of now, there is no cure for cancer. It is one of the leading diseases that are responsible for most deaths in the world. The way to prevent this is by applying techniques that reduce the amount of smoke that gets in contact with meat when grilling. The government, health institutions and other stakeholders should educate the general public about the issue of grilled meat and methods of reducing smoke when cooking meat.

Work Cited

Lee, Joon-Goo, et al. “Effects of grilling procedures on levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in grilled meats.” Food Chemistry 199 (2016): 632-638.

Oz, Fatih, and M. OnurYuzer.”The effects of cooking on wire and stone barbecue at different cooking levels on the formation of heterocyclic aromatic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in beef steak.” Food Chemistry 203 (2016): 59-66.

Pirsaheb, Meghdad, Elena-NiculinaDragoi, and Yasser Vasseghian. “Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Formation in Grilled Meat products—Analysis and Modeling with Artificial Neural Networks.” Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds (2020): 1-1