Safe Grilling Secret Revealed

Previously, studies have suggested an association between consumption of grilled meats and a high incidence of colorectal cancer. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are substances that can form when meats are cooked at very high temperatures, like on a backyard grill. I.M.P.L.V.O. Ferreira, from the Universidade do Porto (Spain), and colleagues grilled samples of pork marinated for four hours in Pilsner beer, non-alcoholic Pilsner beer or a black beer ale, to well-done on a charcoal grill. Black beer had the strongest scavenging activity, reducing the levels of eight major PAHs by more than half, as compared with unmarinated pork. The study authors write that: “[Black beer] marinade was the most efficient on reduction of [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons] formation, providing a proper mitigation strategy.”