My work has me meeting with quality and process engineers. I randomly wound up having a conversation with and engineer who designs KBB.
A few bullet points:
1) there is absolutely nothing to worry about as far as ingesting any chemicals used in the product itself or the manufacturing process that are unhealthy
2) this guy eats food all day long cooked on KBB started with lighter fluid. no issues for him.
3) he has 100% stopping cooking in a method that allows the fat to drip on coals. Zero direct cooking at this point due to carcinagens. He did mention that it isnt a charcoal thing but anytime fat drips on any heat source it causes some dangerous smoke that gets in food
4) lump charcoal is unregulated and even some brands listed as organic will have some things in there you absolutly do not want to have
5) this guy has an extensive education and spoke in terms way over my head but did not have any agenda to try to promote his product. He was mostly a very educated engineering type who knew his stuff
