Occurrence of acrylamide in selected foods and mitigation options

Abstract

Acrylamide reduction in certain food products is an important issue for both the food industry and academic research institutions. The present paper summarises past and current research on the occurrence and reduction of acrylamide in potatoes, bakery products, almonds, olives and dried fruit. In potatoes, the control of reducing sugars, process temperature and moisture is imperative to limit acrylamide formation. In bakery products, free asparagine and the type of baking agent largely determine acrylamide formation and present the starting points for reduction. The application of asparaginase is promising in this respect because it acts only on the key precursor, asparagine, whereby the product character remains unchanged. The baking agent NH₄HCO₃ promotes acrylamide formation in sweet bakery but its replacement by NaHCO₃ effectively decreases acrylamide concentrations. Temperature and free asparagine are the key factors for acrylamide formation in roasted almonds. Olives and dried fruit may contain acrylamide and large amounts of acrylamide can be formed upon heating these products, a phenomenon which needs further investigation.

Keywords:

• Acrylamide
• reduction
• asparaginase
• ammonium hydrogen carbonate
• asparagine
• 3-aminopropionamide
• potatoes
• bakery
• flour
• almonds
• olives
• dried fruit

Acknowledgements

We thank Novozymes (Bagsværd, Denmark) for providing the experimental asparaginase and Zweifel Pomy-Chips (Spreitenbach, Switzerland) for supplying potato samples and for allowing the external analyses of 3-APA in potatoes. We also thank Alexandra Burri from Wernli AG (Trimbach, Switzerland) for co-operation with the asparaginase and SAPP experiments. In addition, we thank Till Goldmann from the Nestlé Research Center (Lausanne, Switzerland) for analysis of 3-APA in olive samples. Financial support from the Federation of Swiss Food Industries (FIAL), the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG), COOP Switzerland, and Migros Switzerland is gratefully acknowledged.