Carcinogen in Chips and French Fries

Victoria Anderson PhD

If worries about obesity do not stop most people from eating French fries, acrylamide might. This article explores how popular brands of snack chips and French fries countain distrubingly high levels of acrylamide, according to new labroratory tests commissiioned by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. (CSPI).

This carcinogen first made it into the news in 1976. And in 2002, scientists conclusively linked acrylamide to fries and other starches. The tests were conducted by the same Swedish government scientists that two months ago first discovered the cancer-causing chemical in certain fried and baked starchy foods.
Acrylamide forms as a result of unknown chemical reactions during high-temperature baking or frying. Raw or even boiled potatoes test negative for the chemical. CSPI today urged the FDA to inform the public of the risks from acrylamide in different foods, and to work with industry and academia to understand how acrylamide is formed and how to prevent its formation.
"There has long been reason for Americans to eat less greasy French fries and snack chips," CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson said.

Recently The World Health Organization (WHO) held a three-day closed meeting in Geneva with 23 scientific experts specializing in carcinogenicity, toxicology, food technology, biochemistry and analytical chemistry convened to discuss the health ramifications of the acrylamide discovery, which has since been confirmed by the British, Swiss, and Norwegian governments. They came up with the following statement: "After reviewing all the available data, we have concluded that the new findings constitute a serious problem, but our current limited knowledge does not allow us to answer all the questions which have been asked by consumers, regulators and other interested parties."
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) though, has been standing on the sidelines of what is fast becoming a major global debate, according to CSPI, which today called on the agency to treat acrylamide with greater seriousness.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes acrylamide as white, odorless, flake-like crystals that are used mainly in treating drinking water and for industrial purposes and can cause cancer in people exposed to high levels for a long period.
"The FDA has been strangely silent about acrylamide," Jacobson said. "It should be advising consumers to avoid or cut back on the most contaminated and least nutritious foods while more testing is done across the food supply. The FDA also should be intensively investigating ways of preventing the formation of this carcinogen." Fast-food French fries showed the highest levels of acrylamide among the foods CSPI had tested, with large orders containing 39 to 72 micrograms. One-ounce portions of Pringles potato crisps contained about 25 micrograms, with corn-based Fritos and Tostitos containing half that amount or less.
Among the findings: The amount of acrylamide in a large order of fast-food French fries is at least 300 times more than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows in a glass of water. Acrylamide is sometimes used in water-treatment facilities.

"I estimate that acrylamide causes several thousand cancers per year in Americans," said Clark University research professor Dale Hattis. Hattis, an expert in risk analysis, based his estimate on standard EPA projections of risks from animal studies and limited sampling of acrylamide levels in Swedish and American foods.

Mark Kaufman has written a lot about the process of frying and baking starchy foods such as potatoes and bread and how it causes the formation of potentially harmful amounts of a chemical listed as a probable carcinogen. He noted that Swedish officials said they were so surprised by the information that they decided to make it public immediately, rather than wait for publication in a scientific journal. The chemical, acrylamide, which is used industrially in the manufacture of some plastics, is also apparently formed by the heating of starches. Foods with especially high levels of the chemical included french fries, potato chips and crackers.
The governmental agency, following up on research by a group of scientists at Stockholm University, studied more than 100 foods bought in Swedish stores and restaurants and determined that "fried, oven-baked and deep-fried potato and cereal products may contain high levels of acrylamide." The high acrylamide levels were initially discovered during a University of Stockholm study at a factory that used them industrially. The Swedish report said that high doses of acrylamide have been shown to cause cancers and that "it seems reasonable to conclude that a significant number, perhaps several hundred, of the annual cancer cases in Sweden can be attributed to acrylamide."

Raw and boiled foods are key to your health. Most cooked foods will lose valuable nutrients due to their fragile nature. However, high temperatures will also potentially cause formation of carcinogenic substances as this study shows. This has been shown for cooking meats over a grill in which heterocyclic amines are formed A healthy eating plan emphasizes the need for at least one-third of your foods being consumed as raw. Raw foods are key to your health. Most cooked foods will lose valuable nutrients due to their fragile nature. However, high temperatures will also potentially cause formation of carcinogenic substances as this study shows.