This study analyzed the pollutants emitted from different cooking methods and food types. Mild cooking methods like steaming and boiling emitted fewer pollutants than harsh methods like frying and grilling. Cabbage cooked with mild methods emitted fewer pollutants than cabbage cooked harshly, and the same was found for clams and coffee seeds. Harsh cooking leads to higher temperatures and pressures, producing more pollutants like aldehydes, ketones, and hydrogen sulfide. The odor intensity was higher for foods cooked harshly compared to mildly. Cooking pollutants can negatively impact human health by causing cancer, irritation, and other issues.

1. The hazardous pollutants emission during cooking activities
Ehsanul Kabir, Ki-Hyun Kim∗, Nur Ashikin
Department of Environment & Energy, Sejong University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, University Kuala Lumpur Medical Science and
Technology, Malaysia.
Abstract
In this study, by using 3 types of food
ingredients and 2 cooking method can actually
produced various type of hazardous pollutants.
Introduction
Cooking activities actually can release gases
and many pollutants such as volatile organic
compound (VOC), aldehyde and hydrogen
sulfide (H2S) (R.J. Philips at al., 1996). Usually
the pollutants that emitted when cooking is
depend on the cooking stuff, cooking style and
also cooking fuels (S.W. Pang et al., 2002) .
To identify the pollutants that released from
various food type in combination with
different cooking style.
Method
• 3 types of food is used including vegetables
(cabbage), sea food (clam) and seed (coffee
seeds) and 2 types of cooking methods
between mild (steaming, boiling and
brewing) and harsh treatment (frying,
grilling and roasting) is applied. It is to
measure odorants released.
• The steam and fry cooking method is used
for cabbage, boil and grill cooking method
for clam and brew and roast for coffee
seeds.
Results :
Mild
cooking
treatment
Harsh
cooking
treatment
-1
4
9
14
Cabbage Clam Coffee
Comparison of Odor Intensity between mild and
harsh cooking treatment
Discussion
Number of pollutants released from the
harsh cooking treatment is higher than
mild cooking treatment because harsh
cooking treatment use high temperature
and increase pressure so that it produce
high number of pollutants (S. Oestreich-
Janzen., 2010). The pollutants such as
aldehyde, ketone, alcohols, acids, sulfides
and hydrogen sulfide (S. Rappert et al.,
2005). The result also shows that the odor
intensity of harsh cooking treatment is
higher than mild cooking treatment and it
also shows the roasting coffee seeds have
the highest OI among all 6 sample types
(Ehsanul Kabir et al., 2011). The odor
strengths of frying (harsh) style appeared
to be stronger than boiling (mild)
(American Society for Testing and
Materials (ASTM), 2004). Cooking
activities such as the cooking method and
types of food are the factors affecting the
odorant emission. The cooking pollutants
can cause health hazard. The cooking
smoke release particles that can cause
cancer and other health problems (N.
Bruce et al., 2008). It can cause
annoyance to people due to odour (G.D.
Nielsen et al., 1995). It also can cause
irritation effects to eyes and respiratory
tract (G.D. Nielsen et al., 1997).
Mild cooking
treatment
Harsh
cooking
treatment
0
5
10
15
20
Cabbage Clam Coffee
Comparison number of pollutants released
between mild and harsh cooking treatment
Conclusion
As the conclusion, cooking activities form different types
of food materials and different cooking process can
cause the released of hazardous pollutants to the
environment.
References
• Ehsanul Kabir and Ki-Hyun Kim, 2011. An investigation on hazardous and odorous pollutant emission during
cooking activities. Journal of Hazardous Materials. 188: page 443-454
• R.J. Philips, 1996. Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Control in the Food Processing Industry, Great Falls, VA, USA
• S. Rappert and R. Müller, 2005. Odor compounds in waste gas emissions from agricultural operations and food
industries. Waste Manage. 25 (9): page 887–892
• S.W. Pang, A. Wong, 2002. Challenges on the Control of Cooking Fume Emissions from Restaurants. Better Air
Quality in Asian and Pacific Rim Cities, Hong Kong SAR
• S. Oestreich-Janzen, 2010. Chemistry of coffee. Chem. Biol. 3: page 1085–1117