Cooking process: a new source of unintentionally produced dioxins?

To improve understanding of human background exposure to dioxins, the influence of cooking on dioxin concentrations in food has received much attention. Studies have focused on changes in the distribution of dioxins that originate from raw foods. However, the possibility of dioxin formation during cooking has been neglected. In this study, cooking experiments were designed to investigate the generation of dioxins during cooking at high temperature and with flavorings containing organic chlorine. Solid, liquid, and gas phase samples were collected during cooking. The results indicate that dioxins can be generated during some cooking processes, such as burning, or when cooking with reactive organic chlorides, and the dioxins are more likely to be present in the smoke (gas phase) than the edible portion (solid and liquid phases). Thus, more attention should be given to cooking of raw foods and organic chlorine-containing flavorings at high temperature. Maintaining good ventilation during cooking is also necessary to reduce human exposure risk to dioxins.