The air fryer is very hot, because the selling points such as "health" and "convenience" are welcomed by many consumers. Any kind of thing is on fire, and someone will come to "expose the harm", such as this one that has recently circulated on the Internet:
At the beginning of this article, "such a serious disease" refers to liver cancer, which is of course very serious and sympathetic.
However, the so-called "doctors" and "scientific experts" in this article attributed liver cancer to acrylamide in food, and took the air fryer as the culprit in the production of acrylamide, directly concluding that "the air fryer will produce one more carcinogen than normal fried food"——
To put it bluntly, this is a flawed "routine rumor": describe a real case, cause uneasiness by triggering the public's "sense of substitution", and then use a specious "expert statement" to complete the creation of the rumor.
Why? The following is a detailed analysis.
Too long not to look at the version
Air fryers, from a food engineering point of view, are closer to "ovens".
Because of the high heating efficiency and the short heating time required, the air fryer does not produce more acrylamide than a conventional oven or fryer.
Epidemiological investigations have not found that acrylamide in foods increases the risk of cancer or otherwise.
The essence of the "air fryer",
Closer to the "oven"
The so-called "air fryer" is just a business name. The earliest name of the air fryer is actually "air convection oven", the working principle is to let the hot air flow through the fan, increase the convective heat transfer, thereby greatly improving the efficiency of heat transfer.
From a food processing point of view, "frying" and "roasting" are different principles:
The essence of frying is to use high temperature oil as a medium to heat ingredients. Because the specific heat capacity of the oil is higher, and the convective heat transfer is the mainstay, the heating efficiency is very high.
Figure丨 giphy.com
The oven, on the other hand, heats up the ingredients mainly through radiant heat transfer. Although the air is also heated, only natural convection exists in the oven because the heat transfer efficiency caused by the air flow is very low.
Therefore, "air convection oven" more accurately describes its characteristics than the name "air fryer".
Air cannot replace it
The role of oil in "frying"
If only from the perspective of heat transfer efficiency, the air fryer is indeed much closer to frying than the oven. However, in the cooking method of "frying", the role of the oil is not only to transfer heat, but also to participate in the formation of flavor.
The characteristic aroma of fried foods comes from the Maillard reaction. After a series of extremely complex and uncertain chemical reactions, the sugars (mainly from carbohydrates) and amino acids (mainly from proteins) in food make the food brown and bright, while releasing a variety of volatile substances to produce a seductive fragrance.
In addition, some of the unstable fatty acids in edible oil also undergo oxidative reactions, which, like the Maillard reaction, are complex and uncertain.
At the same time, the products of the two reactions will enter each other's reaction system. In other words, sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids form a more complex reaction system that integrates the Maillard reaction and the oxidation of oils and fats, culminating in the characteristic flavor of frying.
Therefore, people who have used the air fryer will find that for ingredients with high oil content, processing with an air fryer can obtain a similar effect to frying; and for those ingredients with low oil content, the result of air frying is similar to that of oven baking.
Process food in an air fryer
Does acrylamide be produced?
Acrylamide has been present in food since humans began cooking — only to be known to humans until 2002.
Acrylamide in food, mainly from the processing of asparagine and reducing sugars. The conditions for formation are low water content and heating to above 120 °C. In addition, there are some other food ingredients that can form acrylamide. French fries, potato chips, coffee, biscuits, toast and other high-carbohydrate foods that have been fried or baked at high temperatures have become the "hardest hit areas" of acrylamide.
French fries, happy, but... 丨 pixbaby.com
Handling food with an air fryer is a high-temperature heating method. If you process starchy ingredients with low water content, you will indeed produce some acrylamide.
However, because of the high heating efficiency and the short heating time required, the air fryer does not produce more acrylamide for the same ingredients and heating to the same extent than in a conventional oven or fryer. If the fried meat ingredients are not fried, if the batter (starch) is not hung, the amount of acrylamide produced is even more minimal.
Health hazards of acrylamide
How big is it
Acrylamide is a small molecule that, after entering the digestive tract, can be absorbed into the circulatory system and then rapidly transported to various tissues, including through the placenta to the fetus, and into breast milk. Acrylamide can be metabolized in the body, and metabolites are genotoxic and carcinogenic.
However, in animal experiments, the smallest dose that can affect physiological indicators is a few hundred micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. According to a number of foreign survey data, the average person's intake of acrylamide from food is roughly in the order of 1 microgram per kilogram of body weight per day.
Of course, those who consume high-acrylamide foods in large quantities can also consume a few micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. When inferring human safety data from animal experiment data, it is usually necessary to divide by a "safety factor" of 100 or even higher in order to exclude the influence of various uncertainties. That is to say, some people in the public have acrylamide intake in the range of "potentially harmful doses" after considering the safety factor.
Epidemiological investigations have not found that acrylamide in food increases cancer or other risks, and the joint expert group of WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (JECFA) believes there is insufficient evidence to set "safe intake". Based on previous considerations, they concluded that "acrylamide could become a public health problem" and suggested a long-term study of it. Today, 20 years have passed, and there is no updated evidence of harm, and JECFA still maintains its original conclusions and recommendations.
Of course, acrylamide is worthless to the human body after all, so out of caution, we should also try to reduce it in our daily lives.
However, to distort such a "prudent advice" into "caused by an air fryer, long-term intake will lead to liver function degradation and increase the risk of inducing liver cancer" is a complete rumor and panic.
Author: Yun Wuxin
Edit: Malt Yang odette
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