SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF CONTAMINATING SMOKED FOOD WITH CARCINOGENIC COMPOUNDS OF SMOKE

Abstract

Meat and fish smoked products, widely produced nowadays, occupy a permanent place in the mass diet. The consumption of smoked meat is estimated by FAO at 15.6 million tons in 2019 (+40 % growth over the past ten years). This is due to the increased incomes of consumers in many countries, which made meat and fish smoked products, once classified as "premium" delicacies, more accessible to the majority. There has been a shortage of high-quality raw materials, which, combined with a highly competitive food market, forces manufacturers to reduce their costs by using non-traditional raw materials. The latter leads to increased use of processing raw materials with smoke to effectively mask individual defects in taste, appearance and consistency of products. As a result, there is a carcinogenic contamination problem because of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) presented in the smoke and smoking liquids, and the growth of cancer. PAHs are formed as a result of pyrolysis of wood during smoke generation at temperatures above 450-480 °C. Currently used smoke generators and schemes for cleaning smoke from PAHs are not effective enough, so they do not eliminate the main cause of PAH formation, uncontrolled pyrolysis. The principal solution to the problem is to develop methods and equipment for producing smoke at temperatures below carcinogenic peaks. A successful solution is the method for producing smoke with an infrared power supply, implemented in the design of IR smoke generator (IRSG). The device allows to reliably maintain the pyrolysis temperature of wood below 450 °C. The effectiveness of the method and apparatus is confirmed by studies of products smoked with IR-SG, in which the content of Benzo(a)pyrene is less than 0.0002 mcg/kg, which is lower than the maximum permissible concentrations of this compound in food.