Abstract/Summary

Smoked foods are becoming increasingly popular and are being produced by large and small food operations, artisan producers, chefs and consumers themselves. Epidemiological studies conducted over a number of decades have linked the consumption of smoked foods with various cancers and these findings have been supported by animal testing. Smoke contains a group of dangerous carcinogens that are responsible for lung cancer in cigarette smokers and implicated as causative agents for colorectal and other human cancers resulting from the consumption of smoked and barbequed food products. This article describes a new innovation in smoke filtration technology that can significantly reduce the presence of carcinogens in aerosol smoke used to produce smoked food products and hence largely remove a group of dangerous chemicals from the food supply.