Determinants of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Smoked Bushmeat

Abstract

Abstract: The Ashanti Region located at the central part of Ghana is harboring about 60% of the nation’s forest reserves. This undoubtedly makes the region and Ghana one of the major consumers of bush meat since a larger percentage of the wild species reside in these forest reserves. Unfortunately however the obsolete technologies used in processing the meat are very likely to induce PAHs in the meat. Processed meat (bushmeat) using smoke from burnt car tyres is raising serious concern because of the adverse effects it may have on consumers. This paper therefore investigates to assess the levels of PAH in smoked bushmeat and determine among the substances/methods used in singeing off the hair of animals in flames, the substance/method that produces the least PAHs. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for α=0.05 was used to show the variations in PAH values according to the substance/method used in singeing off the hair of animals in flames. The results reveal that, when bushmeat is smoked using Gas it produces smaller PAH values compared with bushmeat smoked using wood mixed with spent oil, plastics mixed with refuse, and discarded car tyres.