Investigating carbonyls (acrolein and acetaldehyde) produced from the frying process; a systematic review, meta-analysis, and health risk assessment

Cooking, particularly frying, is a significant contributor to indoor air pollution, which has the potential to make carbonyls due to the characteristics of edible oils. Many studies have measured the carbonyls emitted during frying, such as acetaldehyde (ACT) and acrolein (ACR). However, there has been no comprehensive study to estimate their generation rate. Therefore, this study aims to meta-analyse the concentrations of ACT and ACR emitted from the frying process at the emission point and assess their corresponding inhalation risk under two ventilation system scenarios (on/off). The potential for ozone formation from these compounds was also estimated using Monte-Carlo simulation. After systematic research among international databases of Scopus and WOS, 2526 articles were identified. Finally, 10 papers (228 data reports) included to the study based on PRISMA protocol guideline. The results showed that, the pooled concentration of ACT and ACR was 0.079 and 0.154 mg/m3, respectively. Based on the Monte Carlo simulation, the estimated inhalation exposure for ACT was 0.0041 and 0.0017 ${\rm{mg}}$mg/${{\rm{m}}<^>3} $m3 when the hood was switched off and on, respectively. A similar reduction was observed for ACR (from 0.0079 to 0.0039 ${\rm{mg}}$mg/${{\rm{m}}<^>3}$m3) under the scenarios. Unlike ACR, the non-carcinogenic risk for ACT was obtained lower than one under both scenarios, which did not indicate any risk. However, the estimated cumulative health risk for both target compounds was considerable. Cancer risk estimations in association with ACT showed potential risk for both scenarios. The results also estimated that each mg of ACT and ACR have the potential to form 0.3 and 1 mg of ozone, respectively.