A comprehensive study of volatile organic compounds from the actual emission of Chinese cooking.

China's current perspective for big cities was filled with great population, great number of restaurants, growing gaseous pollutants, and great pollution. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were the main components of catering industry gaseous pollutants. In this study, we collected and analyzed VOCs from home cooking (HC), Sichuan and Hunan cuisine (S&H), Shandong cuisine (SD), Anhui cuisine (AH), Beijing cuisine (BJ), and barbecue (BBQ). The result showed that BBQ gave the highest VOC concentration (6287.61 μg m-3), followed by HC (1806.11 ± 2401.85 μg m-3), SD (2238.55 ± 2413.53 μg m-3), AH (1745.89 μg m-3), S&H (1373.58 ± 1457.45 μg m-3), and BJ (288.81 μg m-3). The abundance of alkane was higher among BBQ, Anhui cuisine, and HC with the proportion from 33 to 71%. SD contained higher halohydrocarbons proportion (33%). BJ was characterized by high-oxygenated volatile organic compounds proportion (50%). The ozone formation potential (OFP) of BBQ was much greater than other cuisines. The degree of stench pollution from cooking VOCs of HC was 17.51 ± 16.95, followed by S&H (15.77 ± 16.85), SD (15.12 ± 14.17), AH (16.29), BBQ (2.58), and BJ (1.81). Benzene had the highest life cancer risk (LCR) in SD (2.11×10-5 ± 3.12×10-5), following HC (4.50×10-6 ± 3.83×10-6) and S&H (4.08×10-6 ± 4.49×10-6). Acrolein had a high hazard index (HI) in HC (789.81 ± 768.77), following AH (728.78), S&H (689.89 ± 776.07), SD (664.29 ± 648.77), BBQ (65.93), and BJ (62.84).