Is cooking smoked bacon carcinogenic?

Answer

Bacon, whether smoked or not, is also pickled. Salt and nitrite are added to this. Nitrite can react with a number of components in the bacon to form nitrosamines. These would indeed be carcinogenic to humans. By frying bacon, you form some more of these components… However, they are also present in other cured meats; pate, salami, cooked ham, cured ham, cooked sausage; nitrite is even used in cheese.

Baking bacon also makes it brown – some of the components that are formed here are not healthy, others are just that… Moreover, you also form them when frying meat (so it is apart from the nitrite story).

Fairly complex, but my intention is mainly to underline that sometimes ‘good’ and less ‘good’ things happen when preparing a food, including bacon. The message is also not to eat bacon every day; actually you have to spread the risk a bit: a little of everything and not too much of one or the other.
And of course fried bacon is also super tasty!

One more word about smoking: bacon is rarely smoked artisanally, I think. Smoke flavoring (which is prepared industrially) is usually added during brining. When smoke is produced, a series of carcinogenic products are created, which actually also occur in soot. Those smoke aromas are normally checked for this. With traditional smoking in a smoking room with wood, this is less under control.

Hopefully not too disturbing news everyone,

Regards
Bruno De Meulenaer