Biomass as a Biofuel Used in Food Preparation: Qualitative Variables that Contribute to People's Quality of Air and Life

The use of biomass for cooking food is a daily activity for many families and can cause an increase in morbidity and mortality in different parts of the world. Improper burning of this material can generate various polluting compounds that negatively impact the environment and people’s health. Wood-burning stoves and fireplaces emit significant amounts of harmful pollutants, including several carcinogenic compounds, with CO and NOx being two of the primary gaseous pollutants from wood smoke. Thus, the objective of this chapter was to discuss the main variables that contribute to people's air quality and life. For this, we debated biomass as a biofuel in food cooking, the combustion of biomass in air quality and people's health, the evolution of cooking methods, the use and effect of biomass use in domestic environments, and how to tackle the challenge of clean cooking. It was observed that the methods of preparing food with forest biomass are often carried out incorrectly, often with outdated preparation methods. This occurs mainly in developing countries by families without prior knowledge of the risks, or when there is knowledge, there need to be more economic subsidies.