A pilot study of the contribution of energy-dense Caribbean diets to acrylamide exposure with associated health risks for a population of university students in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

Previous studies on university students have indicated a significant decline in the consumption of fruits and vegetables complemented by an increase in energy-dense foods. The food toxicant, acrylamide, typically occurs in carbohydrate-rich, energy-dense foods that have been heated. Hence, this work presents an estimated dietary acrylamide exposure for university students in Trinidad and Tobago. A 2-day dietary recall method was used to obtain the food consumption information from 683 university students of differing sociodemographic backgrounds. The acrylamide exposure was estimated using a deterministic approach. The median acrylamide intake was estimated to be 1.39 µg/kg bw/day. The estimated mean acrylamide dietary intakes for the female and male population were 1.40 and 1.37 µg/kg bw/day, respectively. Coffee was determined to be the major dietary contributor to acrylamide exposure. However, bread was the food item that was most frequently consumed among the students. Using multiple linear regression, a possible correlation was detected between the acrylamide exposure and these variables: dietary habits (mostly eat out; p < 0.05), and Indian ethnicity (p < 0.10). Using the margin of exposure approach, dietary acrylamide exposure was found to be a health concern with regards to neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity. An evaluation of the procedures and results from this pilot study was carried out for the potential of conducting a full-scale research project.

Keywords:

• Neurotoxic
• carcinogenic
• acrylamide
• diet
• food toxin
• Maillard reaction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the School for Graduate Studies and Research, and the Department of Chemistry, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago.