Abstract

High consumption of meat was shown to be positively associated with increased risk of some types of cancer. Meat could be involved in carcinogenesis via carcinogenic substances related to cooking and processing, e.g. nitrate, heterocyclic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The evaluation of exposure to carcinogens from the diet is estimated using food frequency questionnaire and instrumental analysis. However, there is a lack of methods suitable to use by individual consumer enabling individual dietary hazards assessment. The purpose of this paper was to introduce the fast estimation method of dietary exposure risk to cooked meat-related carcinogenic substances, which could be easy to use by individual consumer. The method was based on special, formula which includes factors related to meat processing and cooking involved in carcinogens formation. It allows to calculate the hazard category and shows cooking procedures which lower the risk. The method may be helpful for every family to reduce intake of meat-related carcinogenic compounds, thus decreasing the risk of cancer.