KOCHI: A spicy combination of meat cooked on direct flame combined with smoke may tickle your taste buds, the reason why the number of food outlets serving Arabian delicacies as well as barbecue items are increasing by the day in the city. But they may not be exactly healthy.
As per available data, nearly 100 outlets in and around the city serve Arabian delicacies. Grilled chicken, al fahm, shawarma, shawai chicken, kebabs and other shawai and barbecue items. Some outlets that serve Chinese and Indian cuisine have added barbecue items on its menu recently on realising the popularity of Arabian delicacies.
A recent addition on the menu is Kuzhi Mandi, the Malabari version of Arabian Mandi. But before savouring them, gourmets hardly give a second thought to their authenticity and the health hazards posed if they are not prepared well.
As per health experts, the major threat posed by grilled items include the presence of charred crust and smoke, a combination of which can cause harmful diseases including cancer. “Unlike the Arabs, the Malayalis like food to be well cooked and ask chefs to to overdo it which chars the item. The presence of charred crust may give a tasty flavour, but char is laden with hetero cyclic amines, graded as cancer causing compounds,“ warn experts.
Usually marinated meat is grilled and when it gets cooked on a high flame, the fat from the meat drips into the burning coal producing smoke that comprises a toxic chemical, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These toxic elements which can cause lung problems are absorbed directly into the food.
Another danger in consuming grilled items from unauthorised or unauthentic outlets is the hazards possessed by raw meat. “For instance, if a chicken wing or breast piece is not cooked well, we will not be able to identify it at a glance as the outside will look cooked. But the core of the meat, especially the areas near the bone may have traces of blood in it which we will not notice while eating. Uncooked meat can lead to diseases like kidney cancer,” they said.