Experts recommend moderate consumption of acrylamides

While the recently released 24th Australian Total Diet Study (ATDS) revealed mostly good news for acrylamide levels in Australian food and beverages, experts are urging the public to consume products containing acrylamide in moderation.

“The formation of acrylamide when carbohydrate foods are heated caused a stir when it was reported a few years ago. There was no evidence that linked the presence of acrylamide in foods like French fries, potato crisps, roasted meats and baked potatoes to human cancers or genetic effects, and nothing significant has since emerged from research findings,” said Professor Ian Rae, an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and former president of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.

“Taking it easy when it comes to these foods, as regulators advise, has as much to do with overeating and obesity as it has with acrylamide.The acrylamide is formed in natural chemical reactions between food components that also give us tasty browning and crunchy texture. It’s a tough call, but ‘a little of what you fancy’ is probably still the way to go.”

“The statement [in the ATDS] that may cause concern is the findings on acrylamide. Acrylamide is formed naturally in foods by the cooking process, that lovely crusty bread loaf you made yourself from organically produced ingredients will have acrylamide in the crust because of standard cooking reactions,” added Dr Ian Musgrave, a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine Sciences, within the Discipline of Pharmacology at the University of Adelaide.

“Mind you, it takes a lot of food to reach the safety threshold; you would have to consume 6 kg of potato chips a day to reach the safety threshold.

“The good news is that acrylamide levels are low compared to international studies, and the average exposures are around 50 times less than the safety threshold. The issue is that while the levels consumed are 50 times lower than the safety threshold, regulators would prefer this to be 500 times lower. So, while there is no evidence that acrylamide at these levels can cause cancer in humans, the regulators would like the safety margin to be higher. As most of the ways we can reduce exposure involve eating less of foods such as chips and popcorn, a health education approach will have many benefits aside from reducing risk of acrylamide exposure.”