section_path: Traditional techniques/Curing
section_name: Curing
paragraph_text: Curing
  
  The earliest form of curing was dehydration or drying, used as early as 12,000 BC. Smoking and salting techniques improve on the drying process and add antimicrobial agents that aid in preservation. Smoke deposits a number of pyrolysis products onto the food, including the phenols syringol, guaiacol and catechol. Salt accelerates the drying process using osmosis and also inhibits the growth of several common strains of bacteria. More recently nitrites have been used to cure meat, contributing a characteristic pink colour.
  
  In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization classified processed meat —i.e., meat that has undergone salting, curing, and smoking—as "carcinogenic to humans".