Andrew Wadge, of the FSA, said, ``At this stage it is too early to identify the effects of acrylamide in food on people or how it is formed in processes such as baking, frying, grilling or roasting.
It is likely that any risks from acrylamide are not new and we have probably been exposed to them in food for generations.
DOUBTS: Clockwise from top left, Rice Krispies, Walkers Lites, Kellogs Special K and Ryvita; BEWARE: Fried foods may be worse for us than previously thought as high levels of the carcinogenic chemical acrylamide have been found in chips
Like so many microscopic magnets, these
acrylamide compounds cling to soils and are not keen to migrate with water flow.
15,16) Extensive reactivity ratio data of acrylamide with cationic and anionic monomers under various conditions are summarized elsewhere.
In contrast, cationic acrylamide copolymers containing amide monomers such as APTAC and MAPTAC are reasonably stable up to a pH of 9-10.
Acrylamide is metabolized to glycidamide by cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1).
Hemoglobin adducts of acrylamide (HbAA) and glycidamide (HbGA) are well-established biomarkers of exposure to these chemicals (Dybing et al.
The monomer conversions and grafting efficiencies in Table 2 exceed those reported by Carr (14) for reactive extrusion of starch and acrylamide at a 4:1 weight ratio ([approximately equal to] 30% conversion and [approximately equal to] 7% graft), as well as those reported for slurries with chemical initiators (21,23,24), and are comparable to values reported by Hebeish et al.
The independence of conversion on residence time implies that the polymerization kinetics of acrylamide in the presence of persulfate during extrusion is sufficiently rapid to be complete in less than [approximately equal to] 400 seconds.
By contrast, recent analytical work suggests that acrylamide is present naturally in many cooked foods at levels that exceed 1,000 parts per billion and has been present in these foods for a long time.
Officials in Germany, for instance, have already taken steps to limit the amount of acrylamide present in food.
