Food Standards and Quality Control

Food Standard and Quality Control

Lesson 18 : Food Toxicants - Contaminants

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)

• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are contaminants, which may occur from processing operations involving heating or smoking of food products, particularly meat.
• PAHs also occur in the environment as by-products of incomplete combustion. PAHs are considered to be carcinogenic to humans.
• Studies on food residues often focus on measuring levels of the most common carcinogenic PAH – benzo[a]pyrene (BaP); other PAHs in foods are chrysene, benz[a]anthracene and benzo[b]fluoranthene.
• Published reports on benzo[a]pyrene in meat products indicate levels ranging from less than 0.1 to 4 ppb.