PAHs can be formed during cooking and the amounts produced
and occurring in the cooked food depend upon food type,
fuel used and cooking method. Charcoal with wood chips as fuel
generally gave rise to the highest BaP formation in barbecued food,
although charcoal alone gave the highest BaP concentration in beef
burgers. For beef burgers, the maximum and median BaP concentrations
were 29 and 12 μg/kg. The maximum and median PAH15+1
were 566 μg/kg and 221 μg/kg in these samples. These values were
higher than for other barbecued meat products with similar fat
content based on information from packaging labels or based on
previous knowledge. For pork sausages, the maximum and median
BaP concentrations were 31 and 1.9 μg/kg. The maximum and
median PAH15+1 were 446 and 31 μg/kg for these samples. For
chicken, pork, lamb and salmon the maximum and median values
for the PAH15+1 was at least 10-fold lower than for beef burgers.