Acrylamide in Food

In 1997, researchers at Stockholm University in Sweden were testing tunnel workers exposed to large quantities of acrylamide from a water sealant.

After finding high levels of acrylamide both in these workers and in workers who had not been exposed to the sealant the researchers conducted further tests and concluded that the source of the substance came from the workers’ diets.

In April 2002 the Swedish Food Safety Agency announced that the chemical acrylamide is formed during the cooking of starchy foods at high temperatures, during frying or baking for example.

Acrylamide is a small and simple molecule. It could be formed in heated foods via several different mechanisms, which may involved reaction of carbohydrate, proteins and amino acids, lipids and possibly other minor food components.

This finding attracted the attention of food scientists worldwide because of the known toxicity of acrylamide.

In addition to causing cancer in animals, it also causes damage to the nervous system and may affect reproductive processes.

It has now been shown that the process that produces the browning and flavour-producing changes during high-temperature cooking, the so-called Maillard reaction, is also responsible for the formation of acrylamide.

This involves reaction of amino acids with reducing sugars, found in starchy foods. The presence of the amino acid asparagine and the reducing sugars glucose and fructose are critical for acrylamide formation, and potatoes (and to a lesser extent cereals) contain high levels of asparagine.

Acrylamide was found in potato chips and French fries. Acrylamide was also found at lower levels, in baked goods, such as cookies, processed cereals and breads thus a major source of acrylamide in the human diet. A key issue for public health and food safety authorities is whether acrylamide is truly a risk to human health.

The assessment of the risk remains hampered by lack of knowledge about the underlying toxicology, epidemiology and how people are exposed to acrylamide in food.

Preliminary evaluations have not found any correlation between intake of foods known to contain high levels of acrylamide and cancer, nor is there any definite evidence from epidemiological studies that it causes cancer in people exposed to high levels of acrylamide at work.

The risks presented by acrylamide in food may therefore be overestimated. Nevertheless, acrylamide is considered to be a genotoxic (DNA-damaging) carcinogen, and a precautionary approach must be taken, including the assumption that there is no safe level for acrylamide in food.
Acrylamide in Food