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About a year ago I heard that burning your food can lead to an increased risk of getting cancer. The explanation was that the burned portion of the food was carcinogenic. The Carbon that would be produced in burning of the food was also involved in this somehow although its relevance wasn't clearly explained. I was dubious of the claim until I posed the question to some chemist friends of mine who, to my surprise, were not as dismissive of the idea as I was.

Is burning your food something that can increase the likelihood of getting cancer and, if so, it the increase enough to be concerned about?

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Is carbon truly carcinogenic? It is crucial for life as we know it. It is one of the four organic elements: hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. I find it difficult to believe, but I suppose it is possible... – Thomas O Jun 18 '11 at 22:05
@Thomas As far as I remember, burning meat produces some carcinogenic compounds. The carbon part is probably a misunderstanding, probably carbon-containing chemicals are meant instead of pure carbon. – Fabian♦ Jun 18 '11 at 22:15
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I think you are talking about Acrylamide – Oliver_C Jun 18 '11 at 22:23
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@Thomas You're correct in that I wasn't trying to suggest that it was Carbon itself that is carcinogenic. That's obviously not true. I've edited my question to reflect that. – jon_brockman Jun 18 '11 at 22:27
@Oliver_C Likely also N-nitrosamines. – Konrad Rudolph♦ Jun 21 '11 at 10:45
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Acrylamide is chemical compound produced when starchy foods are burnt. It is also in coffee, prunes and olives amongst other foods, and is inhaled from cigarette smoking.

Ingestion of acrylamide has been linked to a number of health concerns, including

(Direct exposure to acrylamide causes problems too, but that's out of scope here.)

For balance, acrylamide has been ruled out of causing several other concerns, such breast cancer and cancer through exposure at work.

The Wikipedia page on acrylamide provides a more comprehensive list of the research and various government's strategies for dealing with it.

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Note: I am not happy with my answer. It does not provide any indication of the seriousness of the dosages found on a bit of burnt beef. I use the C word, without explaining the size of the relative risks, which I suspect are so small as to be not worth even considering. (e.g. there are other, bigger, reasons to cut back on cigarettes, meat and coffee, and that prune juice is a net gain, healthwise) I would appreciate the input of others here. – Oddthinking Jun 18 '11 at 23:29
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Many years ago, the worry was nitrosamines. The distinctive feature of grilling is high temperature and that can form them. Anecdote Back then the research (I heard) was based on grilling boneless chicken breasts. Another LBL researcher thought that we don't put dry chicken breasts on the grill-we marinate them. So he tried it, with his usual marinade. No nitrosamines. He started deleting ingredients, getting down to pure water. Still no nitrosamines. What does water do? Keep the surface cool...

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Please provide some references to support your claims. – Oddthinking Aug 3 '11 at 8:45
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