Acrylamide in Foods:  Occurrence, Sources, and Modeling

Abstract

Acrylamide in food products-chiefly in commercially available potato chips, potato fries, cereals, and bread-was determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Samples were homogenized with water/dichloromethane, centrifuged, and filtered through a 5 kDa filter. The filtrate was cleaned up on mixed mode, anion and cation exchange (Oasis MAX and MCX) and carbon (Envirocarb) cartridges. Analysis was done by isotope dilution ([D(3)]- or [(13)C(3)]acrylamide) electrospray LC-MS/MS using a 2 x 150 mm (or 2 x 100 mm) Thermo HyperCarb column eluted with 1 mM ammonium formate in 15% (or 10% for the 2 x 100 mm column) methanol. Thirty samples of foods were analyzed. Concentrations of acrylamide varied from 14 ng/g (bread) to 3700 ng/g (potato chips). Acrylamide was formed during model reactions involving heating of mixtures of amino acids and glucose in ratios similar to those found in potatoes. In model reactions between amino acids and glucose, asparagine was found to be the main precursor of acrylamide. Thus, in the reaction between nitrogen-15 (amido)-labeled asparagine and glucose, corresponding (15)N-labeled acrylamide was formed. The yield of the model reaction is approximately 0.1%.

Effects of nitrogen nutrition, fungicide treatment and wheat genotype on free asparagine and reducing sugars content as precursors of acrylamide formation in bread

“…First detected factors essential for acrylamide formation in heat-treated food were high starch content and insufficient water amount during the thermal process. A number of research teams simultaneously discovered that acrylamide is formed via so-called Maillard reaction and major reactants of its formation are reducing sugars and the amino acid asparagine (reviewed by Becalski et al 2002). Much attention was paid to methods of food preparation (temperature, processing time, pH, effects of additives, and others), which resulted in lots of interesting findings that enable to reduce risks of acrylamide formation (reviewed by Taeymans et al 2004).…”

Hazardous effects of fried potato chips on the development of retina in albino rats

“…In particular, ACR is formed when the amino acid asparagine in the presence of sugar is heated above 100 曟. Potatoes and cereals which had the highest measured levels of ACR in the Swedish NFA survey were found to be rich in asparagine [20] .…”

“…Restricted red and green colors visual field, and hypertensive retinopathy were observed in an Italian road tunnel worker exposed to ACR containing grouts for 3 months during work until shortly prior to a health examination [5] . The effects persisted for 4 months after the first examination, although white color visual field was normal after 20 days. No group studies have later addressed such ACR-related effects in humans.…”

Tetralactam-modified gold electrodes for amperometric detection of acrylic acid

“…High levels of this compound have been found in potato chips, French fries and several other common foods [3][4][5]. The first such report was announced by scientists from Stockholm University in 2002 [3].…”

“…Among analytical methods used to determine acrylamide levels, expensive and time-consuming chromatographic techniques such as GC-MS [9], GC-MS-MS [10], HPLC-MS [11] and LC-MS-MS [5] predominate. Preparation of samples from food involves extraction using water or methanol and the clean-up step typically consists of a combination of several solid-phase extractions.…”