Selecting Cooking Methods to Decrease Persistent Organic Pollutant Concentrations in Food of Animal Origin Using a Consensus Decision-Making Model

Xiao Tan, Zaiwu Gong, Minji Huang and Zhou-Jing Wang
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Xiao Tan: School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Zaiwu Gong: School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Minji Huang: Fujian Education Examinations Authority, 59 Beihuanzhong Road, Fuzhou 350003, Fujian, China
Zhou-Jing Wang: School of Information, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) pose serious threats to human health. Increasing attention has been paid to POPs to protect the environment and prevent disease. Humans are exposed to POPs through diet (the major route), inhaling air and dust and skin contact. POPs are very lipophilic and hydrophobic, meaning that they accumulate in fatty tissues in animals and can biomagnify. Humans can therefore be exposed to relatively high POP concentrations in food of animal origin. Cooking animal products can decrease the POP contents, and different cooking methods achieve different reduction rates. Here, a consensus decision-making model with interval preference relations is used to prioritize cooking methods for specific animal products in terms of reducing POP concentrations. Two consistency mathematical expressions ( I -consistency and I I -consistency) are defined, then the ideal interval preference relations are determined for the cooking methods with respect to different social choice principles. The objective is to minimize disparities between individual judgments and the ideal consensus judgment. Consistency is used as a constraint to determine the rationality of the consistency definitions. A numerical example indicated that baking is the best cooking method for decreasing POP concentrations in grass carp. The I -consistency results were more acceptable than the I I -consistency results.

Keywords: POPs; animal source food; interval preference relation; consensus; consistency; social choice principles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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