PAHs, diet and cancer prevention: Cooking process driven-strategies

Background Other than in work settings, much of our exposure to PAHs comes from food. Scope and approach Plants take up PAHs from contaminated soil and through settling of air particles on surfaces. The raw materials from these contaminated plants facilitates the presence of these compounds in derived food items such as cereals, grains, flour, bread, oils and fats, fruits and vegetables. Milk and meat products are affected by the accumulation of PAHs in fatty tissues of animals thriving on contaminated feed and breathing contaminated air. Fish and shellfishes (bottom-dwellers or filter-feeders) used as seafood accumulate these toxic compounds from contaminated water. Key findings and conclusions The heat-driven processing of these foods add-on PAHs when they are subjected to high temperatures, fire and fuels. Being carcinogenic compounds, it becomes necessary to understand the strategies which can be explored at public and commercial level to prevent or reduce the formation of PAHs during the processing of foods and reduce associated cancer risk.