A method was developed for the determination of trace amounts of acrylamide (AA) in foods. The method includes the addition of 13 C-labeled acrylamide-1-13 C (AA-1-13 C) as an internal standard, extraction with water, bromination, clean-up with a Florisil cartridge column, dehydrobromination and GC/MS analysis in the selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. Bromination of AA to 2,3-dibromopropionamide (2,3-DBPA) was done using potassium bromide and potassium bromate under an acidic condition. 2,3-DBPA was converted to 2-bromopropenamide (2-BPA) by dehydrobromination with triethylamine before GC/MS analysis. The recoveries of AA from spiked potato chips, corn snack, pretzel and roasted tea were 97ῌ105ῌ, and their relative standard deviations were 0.8ῌ3.9ῌ. The detection limit of AA in foods was 9 ng/g. The method was applied to thirty-one foods purchased from retail markets. AA was found in potato chips at the level of 466ῌ3,340 ng/g, and in other foods at the level of NDῌ520 ng/g.

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An LC/MS method was developed for the determination of acrylamide (AA) in processed or cooked foods. AA was extracted with a mixture of water and acetone from homogenized food samples after the addition of 13 C-labeled acrylamide (AA-1-13 C) as an internal standard. The extract was concentrated, washed with dichloromethane for defatting, and cleaned up on Bond Elut C18, PSA and ACCUCAT cartridge-columns, and then AA was determined by LC/MS in the selected ion recording (SIR) mode. For the LC/MS analysis, four LC columns were connected in-line and the flow of the mobile phase was switched according to a time-program. Monitoring ions for AA were m/z 72 and 55, and those for AA-1-13 C were m/z 73 and 56. AA and AA-1-13 C were determined without interference from the matrices in all samples. The recoveries of AA from potato chips, corn snack, pretzel and roasted tea spiked at the level of 500 ng/g of AA were 99.5ῌ 101.0ῌ with standard deviations (SD) in the range from 0.3 to 1.6ῌ. The limits of detection and quantification of the developed method were 9 and 30 ng/g for AA in samples, respectively.The method was applied to the analysis of AA in various processed or cooked food samples purchased from retail markets. High levels of AA were found in potato chips and French-fried potato (467ῌ3,544 ng/g). Fried and sugar-coated dough cakes (karinto) contained 374 and 1,895 ng/g. Corn snacks contained 117ῌ535 ng/g of AA. Roasted foods (such as roasted sesame seed, roasted barley (mugi-cha), roasted tea (hoji-cha), co#ee beans and curry powder) contained 116ῌ 567 ng/g of AA. Foods made from fish, egg and meat contained lower levels of AA than the plant-based foods. Foods containing much water showed a tendency to have low levels of AA compared with dry foods.The proposed method was applicable to the analysis of AA in variety of processed foods.

Some model studies were performed using various agricultural Products, to clarify the relation between cooking conditions and production of acrylamide (AA). Disc chips made from dried mashed potato, corn meal, wheat flour, rice flour (jyohshin-ko) and glutinous rice flour (shiratama-ko), and dried sesame (arai-goma) and dried almond were baked at 120ῌ200 for 5ῌ20 min, and the samples were analyzed for the levels of AA. When the samples were baked for 10 min, the highest production of AA was observed at 180ῌ200. When the samples were baked at 180, AA levels in agricultural products except sesame were highest after baking for 10 min. Vegetables and fruit were baked at 220 for 5 min with a oven, high AA concentrations were found in baked potato, asparagus, pumpkin, eggplant and green gram sprouts. Concentrations of AA in potato, asparagus and green gram sprouts baked after being precooked by microwave irradiation were higher than those in the products baked without being precooked. On the other hand, the precooking by boiling reduced the production of AA by baking to 1/10ῌ1/4. Acrylamide was not found in microwaved or boiled vegetables. High free asparagine concentrations in crops tended to result in high concentrations of AA being produced by heating the agricultural products.

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