By Juliet Jacob
The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) warns food sellers against using paracetamol to tenderize meat and beans because it can cause renal and liver failure.
Restaurant owners and staff often cook beef with paracetamol as tenderizer to achieve a faster and cheaper process.
NAFDAC Kwara Coordinator Mrs. Roseline Ajayi said this during a sensitization session for fast food workers and food vendors on the risks of cooking with the drug. Paracetamol pills, caplets, and syrup ease pain and fever. Its Hydrolysis produces 4-aminophenol, a renal and liver-toxic compound.
According to Mrs. Ajayi, HCAs and PAHs can cause cancer in animal models, but community studies have not linked cooked foods to cancer. Epidemiologic studies have linked high intake of well-done, fried, or barbecued foods to higher rates of colorectal (19–21), pancreatic (21–23), and prostate (24, 25) cancer, but others have not.
An impartial group of experts formed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) found red meat to be “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2A) in 2015, based mainly on epidemiologic studies and solid mechanistic evidence.
When muscle flesh is cooked at high temperatures, it produces mutagenic chemicals known as HCAs and PAHs. These chemicals cause changes in DNA that can potentially increase the chance of developing cancer.
Paracetamol breakdown produces toxic, carcinogenic benzene. The chemist can turn benzene into a food tenderizer. Drug abuse and usage includes tramadol, codeine, and others because there is no way to regulate the dose.
These detoxifying compounds slowly damage liver and kidney cells.
The dry cleaning solvent carbon tetrachloride, the substance known as vinyl chloride (which is used to create polymers), the herbicide paraquat, and a collection of industrial chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls are examples of common chemicals that have the potential to cause injury to the liver.
