Effectiveness of a covered oil-free cooking process on the abatement of air pollutants from cooking meats

Cooking events can generate household air pollutants that deteriorate indoor air quality (IAQ), which poses a threat to human health and well-being. In this study, the emission characteristics and emission factors (EFs) of air pollutants of different meats (beef, lamb, chicken, pork, and fish) cooked by a novel oil-free process and common with-oil processes were investigated. Oil-free cooking tends to emit lower total volatile organic compound (TVOC) levels and fewer submicron smoke particles and can reduce the intake of fat and calories. However, TVOC emissions during oil-free cooking were significantly different, and the lamb EFs were nearly 8 times higher than those during with-oil cooking. The particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (ƩPPAH) and benzo(a)pyrene-equivalent (ƩBaP_eq) EFs during with-oil cooking ranged from 76.1 to 140.5 ng/g and 7.7–12.4 ng/g, respectively, while those during oil-free cooking ranged from 41.0 to 176.6 ng/g and 5.4–47.6 ng/g, respectively. The ƩPPAH EFs of chicken, pork, and fish were lower during oil-free cooking than during cooking with oil. Furthermore, the ƩBaP_eq EFs of beef, chicken, pork, and fish were lower during oil-free cooking than during cooking with oil. Therefore, it is recommended to use the oil-free method to cook chicken, pork, and fish to reduce ƩPPAH and ƩBaP_eq emissions, but not recommended to cook lamb due to the increase of ƩBaP_eq emissions. The with-oil uncovered cooking EFs of aldehydes ranged from 3.77 to 22.09 μg/g, and those of oil-free cooking ranged from 4.88 to 19.96 μg/g. The aldehyde EFs were lower during oil-free covered cooking than with-oil uncovered cooking for beef, chicken, and fish. This study provides a better realizing of new cooking approaches for the reduction of cooking-induced emission, but further research on the effects of food composition (moisture and fat) and characteristics is needed.