However, CCTV Financial and Economic Information Network reported that a test report of air fryer by Korean Consumer Institute showed that air fryer would produce carcinogens during cooking, which was harmful to health. The saying that "air fryer" causes cancer spread like wildfire. But the air fryer does not need oil, and there is no open flame. Why do you produce carcinogens? Is there something wrong with the pot or the cooking process? Is the food cooked by the air fryer still edible? To solve these problems, we might as well know the working principle of air fryer first.
Cooking principle of air fryer-high speed air circulation
Traditional frying needs to vaporize the water on the surface of food by oil temperature, and then transfer the heat from the outside to the inside by high temperature to achieve the purpose of baking. The air fryer does not need any grease, but uses the high-speed circulation of air to fry food, which is equivalent to a simple version of the oven. Its top is equipped with a tubular food baking heater and a powerful fan, and there is a baking tray in the middle of the frying pan.
The heater can quickly raise the temperature in the pot to about 200℃, and the fan can blow heat to food and various parts, forming a vortex heat flow with high temperature and rapid circulation in the closed space, forcing out the grease of oily food and evaporating the surface moisture; The air guide slot in the frying basket accelerates the air flow, and then takes away the water vapor in the pot, making the food brown and crisp at the same time.
From the working principle, the air fryer can make delicious food without too many additives. So, what about the report that air fryers in Korea cause cancer?
South Korean media reported that air fryers can cause cancer. What's going on here?
Korea Consumer Research Institute randomly sampled 10 air fryers. During the inspection, the French fries were fried according to the instructions. After the frozen French fries are put into the air fryer, the temperature is controlled at 200℃. The test results show that: in the 10 air frying pan sampled, 4 kinds of fried potato chips have been tested for acrylamide exceeding the standard, and some even exceed the EU safety standard by 2 times! The European Union's acrylamide content standard for French fries is 500 μ g/kg. If it exceeds the standard, it is unqualified, or it may be harmful to the body.
As a result, the saying that "air fryer causes cancer" has also begun to spread widely. Coincidentally, the China Hong Kong Consumer Council also conducted a spot check on the air fryer. Spot check items include safety and performance. In the process, 12 air fryer was used as a sample, with a minimum of HK$ 298 and a maximum of HK$ 2080.
In the process of frying frozen French fries, it was found that six kinds of French fries cooked according to the instructions contained acrylamide, all of which exceeded the benchmark level of the European Union. Moreover, some test data show that the acrylamide content of African potato chips is as high as 9. 125㎎/kg, while the acrylamide content of fried potato chips is 3.709㎎/kg. This shows that the acrylamide content of food made by air fryer is much higher than that of fried food, which is more harmful to people! These sampling results caused an uproar in an instant, and the remarks that air fryers caused cancer also intensified.
Can the food cooked by air fryer cause cancer? Can I still eat?
In fact, people think that the air fryer causes cancer, mainly due to acrylamide. Acrylamide is a colorless and odorless toxic compound, which has potential neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity and genetic toxicity to human beings. Low-dose exposure may cause drowsiness, forgetfulness or hallucination, while high-dose intake in a short time may cause acute poisoning, serious deformity and carcinogenesis.
Acrylamide was listed as a Class 2A carcinogen by the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 1994. Based on sufficient evidence of animal carcinogenicity, it may cause cancer to human beings. Based on this cognition, everything containing acrylamide will be labeled as "carcinogenic", but in fact this cognition is wrong.
Acrylamide is one of the carcinogens of 2A, but this does not necessarily mean that it is carcinogenic, because the evidence of its carcinogenicity to people is not sufficient and inconclusive, and its carcinogenicity is lower than that of cigarettes, betel nuts and alcohol. Secondly, acrylamide is widely found in various foods. Some people have studied 350 kinds of food on the market and found that most of them contain acrylamide, such as coffee, pancake fruit, bread, fried dough sticks and so on. Potatoes, cereals and other ingredients that do not contain acrylamide will also produce acrylamide to varying degrees after cooking.
According to the data, FAO and WHO report that the average daily exposure of acrylamide in daily life is 1μg/kg, while our daily intake of acrylamide is about 0.38μg/kg, so there is no need to worry too much. Finally, acrylamide is not only found in food made by air fryers. The results show that any cooking pot will produce different doses of acrylamide as long as the temperature is higher than 120℃, and the Maillard reaction of asparagine with reducing sugar will also produce acrylamide. Therefore, it is extremely unreasonable to use acrylamide as the criterion to judge the carcinogenicity of air fryer.
In addition, there is a remark that "the inner container of air fryer is carcinogenic". It is believed that the inner container contains PTFE or ceramics, which is easy to precipitate perfluorooctanoic acid at high temperature and is carcinogenic. The decomposition temperature of Teflon is above 300℃, and the temperature of air fryer generally does not exceed 200℃, so don't worry at all. In a word, the food made by air fryer is safe to eat, but it is best to clean it after using air fryer and eat less fried and baked food.