COUNCIL FORFOR AGRICULTURALAGRICULTURAL SCIENCE SCIENCE AND AND TECHNOLOGY—1 TECHNOLOGY NUMBER 32 JUNE 2006 ACRYLAMIDE IN FOOD TASK FORCE MEMBERS: David Lineback, Co- chair, Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied INTRODUCTION Nutrition, University of Maryland, College Park; studies or from human expo- In April 2002, researchers Michael W. Pariza, Cochair, Food Research sure in the workplace. Before at the Swedish National Food the Swedish study, no data Institute, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Administration and Stockholm were available on the effects of University, using a new analyti- James Coughlin, Coughlin & Associates, La- acrylamide at the low concen- cal procedure, announced they guna Niguel, California; Catherine Davies, trations observed in food (i.e., had discovered the presence of Department of Animal and Food Sciences, Uni- in the microgram (µg)/kilo- acrylamide in foods prepared versity of Delaware, Newark; Beate Kettlitz,* gram (kg) [parts per billion by heating (frying, baking) at BEUC, the European Consumers’ Organization, (ppb)] range). temperatures above 120°C So acrylamide is not new, Brussels, Belgium; Lauren Posnick Robin, (Swedish 2002; Tareke et al. but its presence in food is 2002). Identification of Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, newly discovered. Increased acrylamide in these foods, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, College concern about the effect of which include french fries, po- Park, Maryland; David Schmidt, International acrylamide on human health tato chips (crisps), cookies (bis- Food Information Council, Washington, D.C.; prompted the United Nations’ cuits) and crackers, crispbreads, Joseph Scimeca, Cargill, Inc., Wayzata, Minne- Food and Agricultural Organi- breakfast cereals, corn chips zation (FAO) and the World sota; Richard Stadler, Nestle Product Technol- (crisps), and soft breads, had not Health Organization (WHO) to been reported previously and ogy Center Orbe, Orbe, Switzerland REVIEWERS: convene an Expert Consulta- the discovery prompted numer- Lilianne Abramsson Zetterberg, Lilianne tion on “Health Implications of ous verification studies in other Abramsson Zetterberg, National Food Adminis- Acrylamide in Food” in June European countries and in tration, SLV, Uppsala, Sweden; Joseph 2002 (UNFAO/WHO 2002). North America. Borzelleca, Virginia Commonwealth University, Numerous gaps in knowledge Acrylamide is a toxic, concerning the formation, oc- Richmond; Henry Kim, Center for Food Safety cancer-causing industrial chem- currence, dietary exposure, and ical used primarily in the prepa- and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Ad- potential for adverse health ration of polyacrylamide (poly- ministration, College Park, Maryland; Steve risks of acrylamide were iden- merized acrylamide), which is Saunders, Food Safety, Frito-Lay, Plano, Texas; tified, and the resulting recom- used principally in water and CAST BOARD LIAISON: Suzanne Hendrich, mendations called for addi- wastewater treatment and in Food Science and Human Nutrition, Iowa State tional research on these topics. pulp and paper processing. One of the foremost needs was University, Ames Most previous toxicological to determine the range of af- data on acrylamide were gathered from high-dose animal fected food types and the extent to which acrylamide was formed, especially in non-Western diets. There seemed to be no urgent reason to promulgate new dietary guidance This material is based upon work supported by the United States because, among other considerations, acrylamide is not new Department of Agriculture under Grant No. 2004-34531-14969\ISU to the human food supply and the anticipated amount of Project No. 416-44-92 and Grant No. 2005-38902-02319. Any opin- ions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this pub- human consumption is well below the amounts required to lication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view induce toxic effects in animal models. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or Iowa State University. Research efforts since April 2002 reflect an unprec- *Present address: Confederation des industries agro-alimentaires de l'ue, edented extent of cooperation among scientists worldwide. Brussels, Belgium Numerous international meetings have been held. Euro- COUNCIL FOR AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY—2 pean food industries have shared research results widely Table 1. Top 20 foods for acrylamide intake by consump- through the Confédération des Industries Agro- tion in the United States (USFDA-CFSAN 2004) Alimentaires de l’UE (CIAA). In the United States, release Mean Acrylamide Intake of research by the foods industry has been constrained, prob- Food (µg/kg-body weight [bw]/day) ably because of Proposition 65 in the state of California (California 1986), which allows the state to declare that a French fries (fried) 0.058 French fries (oven baked) 0.051 chemical is known to cause cancer or reproductive toxic- Breakfast cereal 0.043 ity. When a chemical is so listed, as acrylamide was in 1990, Potato chips 0.041 a warning label is required or the manufacturer may be Cookies 0.036 subject to civil penalties. The minimum level triggering a Brewed coffee 0.029 warning label (No Significant Risk Level [NSRL]) was set Toast 0.023 µ Pies and cakes 0.020 at 0.2 g acrylamide/person/day. A recent proposal from Soft bread 0.019 the state of California would raise this level to 1.0 µg Chile con carne 0.015 acrylamide/person/day for most foods and would establish Corn snacks 0.011 an Alternative NSRL of 200 ppb acrylamide in breads and Crackers 0.011 breakfast cereals (California 2005). Because no analogous Pizza 0.007 Pretzels 0.007 regulation currently exists in Europe, it is not surprising that Popcorn 0.007 information on acrylamide in food is shared more freely in Canned black olives 0.005 Europe than in the United States. Peanut butter 0.004 The call for reliable scientific information on this sub- Bagels 0.004 ject continues to increase significantly, especially after a Soup mix 0.003 Breaded chicken 0.003 preliminary risk assessment by the Joint Expert Commit- tee on Food Additives (JECFA) in 2005, which proposed to reevaluate acrylamide as the results from new studies (Dybing et al. 2004). Food items with relatively low become available (JECFA 2005). The JECFA also recom- acrylamide concentration, consumed in great quantities— mended that appropriate efforts to reduce acrylamide con- such as bread—may be important sources of acrylamide ex- centration in foods continue, and that national authorities posure because exposure considers both acrylamide con- should continue to provide general advice on healthy eat- centration and food consumption. Several studies also have ing (JECFA 2005). Currently there is no single method that made the important point that the food groups contributing works universally for reducing the amount of acrylamide most to exposure are different for the low-percentile, aver- in foods; the reduction must be addressed on a case-by-case age, and high-percentile consumer (Matthys et al. 2005). basis for each food. Cooking temperature is directly related to acrylamide These considerations led the Council for Agricultural concentration. In general, the higher the cooking tempera- Science and Technology (CAST) to produce this Issue ture, the higher the concentration of acrylamide. For ex- Paper. Specific topics addressed herein include acrylamide ample, bread crust, which reaches higher temperatures than formation and detection, methods of mitigation and reduc- the soft part of bread called the crumb, has more acrylamide tion, dietary exposure, toxicology and epidemiology, and than the crumb. In some products such as roasted coffee, the elements of accurate, effective risk communication. however, prolonged heating or heating at very high tem- peratures can decrease acrylamide. No acrylamide has been ACRYLAMIDE CONTENT IN FOODS reported in uncooked foods. Acrylamide is found in many common food products; Acrylamide in Foods Cooked at Home in total, these foods represent approximately 40% of calo- rie intake (Petersen 2003; Tareke et al. 2002). Acrylamide A significant source of dietary acrylamide is foods is present mostly in plant-based foods, in particular potato cooked and prepared at home, by catering services, or and wheat products that are cooked at high temperatures. served in restaurants. For example, when bread (white or Exposure assessments have identified those foods that con- brown) is toasted, the acrylamide content increases by tribute most significantly to intake. In general, fried potato nearly tenfold depending on the toasting time and tempera- products and breakfast cereals are the most significant ture (Ahn et al. 2002). Approximately 50% of acrylamide sources of dietary acrylamide in the U.S. diet, but bread and intake may be from such sources, but quantitative data are coffee also are important sources (Table 1). For infants and scarce (Dybing et al. 2005; Stadler and Scholz 2004). children, cookies (biscuits) may be a significant source of acrylamide. Food Databases Not surprisingly, the top acrylamide sources vary The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and somewhat by country, depending on local food choices European food authorities have established publicly avail- COUNCIL FOR AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY—3 able online databases for acrylamide concentration in foods molecule before analysis—for example, by addition of bro- (see USFDA–CFSAN 2006 for web link). In Europe, there mine to the