Status Report on Acrylamide in Potato Products

Abstract

Acrylamide is a toxin that can potentially occur in high concentrations in heated starchy foods especially potato products such as crisps and french fries. In model systems isotopic substitution studies have demonstrated that acrylamide is formed via the Maillard type reaction between the amino acid aspargine and a carbonyl source such as the reducing sugars glucose and fructose. Levels of acrylamide in cooked potato products are primarily influenced by the levels of reducing sugars in the product and this in turn is influenced by storage time, temperature and variety of potato used. During cooking acrylamide formation begins to occur at temperatures above 100°C and increases up to temperatures of 220°C but decreases thereafter due to thermal degradation of the compound. Risk assessment studies on acrylamide intakes have been conducted in a number of countries and mg/kg body weight daily intakes have been estimated to be between 0.2-0.8. Adequate analytical techniques exist for quantification of acrylamide in potato and are mainly based around liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) techniques