The level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from pork meat depending on the heat treatment applied

PAHs from pork meat, ham, shoulder and bacon were investigated, after different thermal processes were applied. The samples were subjected to boiling, roasting and curing processes. Phenanthrene had the highest value (35.76 mu g kg(-1)) in ham, when curing process was applied, while the lowest value (29.25 mu g kg(-1) ) was obtained when boiling process was applied. The same trend was observed for pork meat, ham and bacon. In bacon, benzo(a)pyrene had the highest value (0.67 mu g kg(-1)) for curing process, followed by roasting (0.53 mu g kg(-1)) and boiling (0.51 mu g kg(-1)) process, respectively. By others PAHs (naphthalene, acenaphthene, flourene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(k)fluoranthene) the highest values were observed by curing process compared to roasting and boiling processes.