The Coffee–Acrylamide Apparent Paradox: An Example of Why the Health Impact of a Specific Compound in a Complex Mixture Should Not Be Evaluated in Isolation

Abstract

The health implications of acrylamide in food are a matter of concern based on toxicological studies in rodents, which showed that doses of acrylamide more than 100 times higher than those estimated to result from dietary exposure in humans are carcinogenic; however, the cancer types reported in rodents are species-specific, and whether these results can be extrapolated to humans is still in question. In fact, human epidemiological studies revealed a general lack of association between dietary acrylamide exposure and the incidence of different cancer types. Even occupational exposure to acrylamide, resulting in acrylamide exposure nearly 10 times higher than dietary exposure, did not increase tumor occurrence. Furthermore, the consumption of coffee, which is a main contributor of dietary acrylamide exposure, actually decreases the overall incidence of cancer in humans and afford global health benefits, increasing both lifespan and healthspan on ageing. This paradox clearly illustrates the risk of evaluating an individual molecule independently of its complete food matrix, which may have other components that completely override the effects of the considered molecule.

Dietary Acrylamide Exposure and Risk of Site-Specific Cancer: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Epidemiological Studies

“…Most of the included epidemiological studies investigating the relationship between dietary acrylamide and cancer risk were performed in North European regions, where dietary exposure to acrylamide is higher than in the Eastern geographical regions (i.e., Japanese populations), which reported the lowest mean dietary exposure below 10 μg/day. Additionally, the no association found in this study may be explained by the lack of assessment of co-exposure to other compounds in food matrixes, including other foodborne carcinogens ( 62 ) or substances that can confer protection to carcinogenic compounds ( 63 , 64 ).…”

Coffee Powder Antioxidant and Acrylamide Activity in Different Processing and Roasting Methods

“…Acrylimide is a compound formed from the coffee roasting process from the Maillard reaction, the main pathway consisting of the reaction between asparagine and reducing sugars. Several studies have shown that acrylamide is an issue as a cancer trigger for coffee connoisseurs (Mesías & Morales, 2016), (Muchtaridi, 2018) (Fadri et al, 2019) (Lachenmeier et al, 2019) (Nehlig & Cunha, 2020). The formation of acrylamide is limited by the presence of a certain amount of asparagine, this causes Robusta coffee to have a higher acrylamide content because it has a higher asparagine content.…”