With the improvement of living standards, the net red air fryer, which is labeled as "low-fat" and "oil-free cooking", has also rapidly become popular, and the share of sales of air fryers on major platforms has risen rapidly. In the case of not using grease, the food made with air fryer still retains the fresh and crispy taste, not only to meet the appetite of the foodies, but also does not aggravate the burden on the body, fast and efficient, so the praise is overwhelming.

However, CCTV Finance's "Economic Information Broadcasting" reported that a test report on air fryers by the Korea Consumer Institute showed that air fryers can produce carcinogens during the cooking process, which can damage your health. "The rumor that air fryers cause cancer has been spreading. However, air fryers do not require oil and do not have an open flame, so why would they produce carcinogens? Is there something wrong with the cooker or the cooking process? Is the food made with air fryers still edible? To solve these problems, we may wish to first understand the working principle of the air fryer.

The cooking principle of air fryer - high-speed air circulation

Traditional deep-frying requires the use of oil temperature to vaporize the water on the surface of the food and then evaporate it, and heat is transmitted from the outside to the inside through high temperatures to achieve the purpose of baking. However, instead of using any grease, the air fryer utilizes high-speed circulation of air to fry food, which is equivalent to a simple version of an oven. It is equipped with a tubular food baking heater on top, a high-powered fan, and a baking pan in the center of the fryer.

The heater can make the temperature inside the pot quickly rise to about 200 ℃, through the fan so that the heat blowing to the food and various locations, in a closed space to form a high-temperature and rapid circulation of the vortex heat flow, the oil-containing food itself to force out the grease, so that the surface moisture vaporization; frying basket in the air guide groove to accelerate the flow of air, which takes away the pan of the vapor, so that the food becomes cooked while the surface The air guide slot in the basket accelerates the air flow and takes away the water vapor in the pot, so that the food becomes cooked and the surface becomes browned and crispy.

From the point of view of the working principle, the air fryer does not need too many additives to make delicious food. So what about the South Korean reports of air fryers causing cancer?

South Korean media reported that the air fryer can cause cancer, how is it?

Korea's Consumer Affairs Bureau sampled 10 air fryers and tested them according to the instruction manual for frying french fries, putting frozen fries into the air fryer and setting the temperature control to 200 degrees Celsius. The test results showed that among the 10 models of air fryers tested, 4 models of French fries tested exceeded the acrylamide limit, and some even exceeded the EU safety standard by 2 times! The EU standard for acrylamide content of French fries is 500μg/kg, exceeding that is unqualified, or the possibility of damage to the body.

So, "air fryer cancer" claims also began to circulate widely. Coincidentally, the Consumer Council of Hong Kong, China, also carried out a sampling results of air fryers. Sampling items include safety and performance, the process of 12 air fryer for sampling samples, the price of the lowest for 298 Hong Kong dollars, the highest for 2080 Hong Kong dollars.

And in the cooking of frozen French fries, according to the instructions of the French fries, six models were detected to contain acrylamide, the content of all exceeded the EU benchmark level. Moreover, test data showed that the acrylamide content of African fried potato chips was as high as 9.125 p.p.m., while that of fried potato chips was 3.709 p.p.m. This indicates that the acrylamide content of food produced by air fryers is much higher than that of fried food, which is much more detrimental to human beings! These sampling results instantly caused an uproar, and the air fryer cancer talk intensified.

Can food made in air fryers cause cancer? Can you still eat it?

In fact, people believe that air fryers cause cancer, mainly due to acrylamide. Acrylamide is a colorless, odorless, toxic compound with potential neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, and genotoxicity in humans. Low-dose exposure may cause drowsiness, amnesia or hallucinations, and large doses over a short period of time may cause acute toxicity, severe deformities and carcinogenicity.

Acrylamide was included in the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) list of group 2A carcinogens in 1994, based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in animals, and may be carcinogenic to humans. Based on this knowledge, but all things containing acrylamide, will be labeled as "carcinogenic", but in fact, this knowledge is wrong.

Acrylamide is located in the ranks of 2A carcinogens, but this does not mean that the carcinogenicity, because of its carcinogenicity to humans is not sufficient evidence, has not formed a conclusion, the carcinogenicity of cigarettes, betel nut, and alcohol is also lower. Secondly, acrylamide is widely found in a wide range of foods. A study of 350 foods on the market found that most of them contain acrylamide, such as coffee, pancake nuts, bread and doughnuts; acrylamide-free ingredients such as potatoes and grains also produce varying levels of acrylamide after cooking.

According to the data, the average daily exposure to acrylamide in daily life as reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) is 1 μg/kg, while our daily intake of acrylamide is about 0.38 μg/kg, which is not a cause for much concern. Lastly, acrylamide is not only found in food made in air fryers. Research results have proved that different doses of acrylamide will be produced when cooking, no matter what kind of pots and pans, as long as the temperature is higher than 120°C. The Meladic reaction between asparagine and reducing sugar will also produce acrylamide. Therefore, it is extremely unreasonable to take acrylamide as a criterion for determining the carcinogenicity of air fryers.

In addition, there is also the "air fryer liner carcinogenic" comments, that the liner contains Teflon or ceramic, high temperature is easy to precipitate perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), with the risk of cancer. The decomposition temperature of Teflon is more than 300℃, but the temperature of air fryer generally does not exceed 200℃, so there is no need to worry. In short, air fryer produced food is safe to eat, but, after using the air fryer to pay attention to clean up, frying and baking food is also still less to eat.