Chinese pickles

However, most Chinese pickles still aim for a balance between the tastes of vinegar, salt, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, hot chili, sugar, and the vegetable or fruit itself.

The vegetable are lightly boiled in the soy mixture before being left to cool and absorb the marinade: The World Health Organization has listed pickled vegetables as a possible carcinogen, and the British Journal of Cancer released an online 2009 meta-analysis of research on pickles as increasing the risks of esophageal cancer.

The report, citing limited data in a statistical meta analysis, indicates a potential two-fold increased risk of oesophageal cancer associated with Asian pickled vegetable consumption.

[7] However, their results stated "The majority of subgroup analyses showed a statistically significant association between consuming pickled vegetables and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma".

Some common fungi can facilitate the formation of N-nitroso compounds, which are strong oesophageal carcinogens in several animal models.

[8] Roussin red methyl ester,[9] a non-alkylating nitroso compound with tumour-promoting effect in vitro, was identified in pickles from Linxian in much higher concentrations than in samples from low-incidence areas.

[7] A 2017 study in Chinese Journal of Cancer has linked salted vegetables (common among Chinese cuisine) to a fourfold increase in nasopharynx cancer, where fermentation was a critical step in creating nitrosamines, which some are confirmed carcinogens, as well as activation of Epstein–Barr virus by fermentation products.