Acrylamide in food – an update A

Acrylamide, a carcinogenic compound, is formed during heating processes in preparation of starch-rich foods. These conditions were announced in April 2002 by scientists at the University of Stockholm together with toxicological scientists from the Swedish National Food Administration (NFA). A short time after the announcement, the Swedish Food Federation (LI) initiated a Scienti c Expert Committee with a directive to evaluate the current knowledge about acrylamide formation in food cooking and heat processing. The fundamental question is: what are the mechanisms behind the formation of acrylamide? In this issue of Scandinavian Journal of Nutrition the Scienti c Expert Committee: Hans Lingnert, Spiros Grivas, Margaretha GoÈ sta Samuelson gosta.samuelson@htu.se

A crylamide, a carcinogenic compound, is formed during heating processes in preparation of starch-rich foods. These conditions were announced in April 2002 by scientists at the University of Stockholm together with toxicological scientists from the Swedish N ational F ood Administration (N F A). A short time after the announcement, the Swedish F ood F ederation (LI) initiated a Scienti c Expert Committee with a directive to evaluate the current knowledge about acrylamide formation in food cooking and heat processing.
The fundamental question is: what are the mechanisms behind the formation of acrylamide? In this issue of Scandinavian Journal of N utrition the Scienti c Expert Committee: H ans Lingnert, Spiros G rivas, M argaretha Go È sta Samuelson gosta.samuelson@htu.se Jägerstad, K erstin Skog, M argareta Tö rnqvist and Per A Ê man, presents in a review article what has recently become known about the formation of acrylamide.

Acrylamide: plausible formation mechanisms
In heated protein-rich foods, low contents of acrylamide are found, whereas in heated carbohydraterich foods high contents are detected. The M aillard reaction (M R ) is the most important chemical reaction in food processing, and the reaction occurs in heat-treating of foods, e.g. roasting, baking, popping, pan-frying and barbecuing. M ost unprocessed foods contain starter reactants, i.e. amino acids, proteins and reducing sugar. At a scienti c meeting in Los Angeles in September 2002 the rst reports were presented showing that acrylamide can be formed within the M R from the amino acid asparagine and sugar components.
The authors summarize that indications can be given on which factors are involved in the acrylamide formation, i.e. high temperatures are needed and, further, that acrylamide formation is mainly a surface phenomenon.
The food industries concerned have reacted rapidly to the alarm raised by the N F A. In crisp processing the heating temperatures have already been lowered, resulting in a reduction in the acrylamide level of about 75%. In the near future, the food industry, together with scienti c institutions, will probably try to nd other sorts of potatoes with changed contents of sugars and asparagine. Interesting recent reports indicate that the concentration of asparagine and sugar components in potatoes varies between plantations and with storage time.

Dairy products and oral health
In a review article in issue 3, 2002, of Scandinavian Journal of N utrition, Ingegerd Johansson described the effects of milk and milk products on oral health. In a commentary on that article in the present issue, William H . Bowen, from the U niversity of R ochester, New York, U SA, suggests that milk is non-cariogenic and may have modest cariostatic properties. F uthermore many cheeses contain microorganisms that may exhibit cariostatic properties in the human mouth. Certainly this commentary and Ingegerd Johansson's article deserve attention. It is an exciting research eld in caries research, not least today when children and young people have lowered their intake of dairy products. Instead, they have increased their intake of soft drinks.

Scandinavian News
Today's short reports and announcements of activities in the eld of nutrition may be rapidly downloaded from the internet. We have therefore decided to cease publication of Scandinavian N ews as from issue 1, 2003. In future we intend to give our readers scienti c, review and overview articles from the N ordic countries, as well as summing up reports by authors of dissertations.
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all authors of Scandinavian N ews for their extraordinary work on these appreciated pages. Thank you so much: you are welcome anytime to discuss and publish contributions in Scandinavian Journal of N utrition.