Impact of consumer practices on exposure to acrylamide: from retail to home, a case study for French fries

Resumen del póster presentado a la EuroFoodChem XIX Conference, celebrada en Budapest (Hungria) del 4 al 6 de octubre de 2017.

The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) confirmed that acrylamide in food potentially increases the risk of developing certain types of cancer in all age groups. Since acrylamide is present in a wide range of foods, the exposure to this process contaminant is a public health concern and a priority for the National Food Safety Authorities. According to EFSA, the main contributor to the total dietary acrylamide exposure is generally the category of 'Potato fried products'. Basically, acrylamide is generated in patato products due to the presence of reducing sugars, asparagine and to the processing conditions applied. Reducing sugars are the main limiting factor in fried potato products, and depend on the patato variety but also on other factors such as agronomic and storage conditions that influence the senescence of the tuber. The potato food industries have made an continous effort to implement different strategies to mitigate acrylamide formation and the levels of acrylamide have decreased over time in potato chips producers, however the situation is controversial for the consumers. There are many stages in the food chain from retailer to consumption that cannot be legally regulated and depend directly on consumer practices in the retail and in the domestic environment. Together with patato composition and frying, food handling practices from the point of purchase would al so contribute to the acrylamide formation in fried potatoes. Indeed, EFSA is awared that one of the major contributors to the dietary exposure to acrylamide is the domestic preparation of foods. Food purchasing decisions of consumers together with the consumer practices in the kitchen can influence the exposure to acrylamide. An observational study for potato frying practices at home and a population survey for dietary babits bave been carried out on consumer practices in three regions of Spain. The acquisition of fresh potatoes at retail by consumers largely depends on the product availability as well as issues of convenience. Secondly, the conditions for storage, sample preparation and finally the culinary technique used are key papameters that will be discussed. A group of volunteers were asked to prepare their own french fries at home and the levels of acrylamide, the culinary technique, the composition of potato tuber and the frying oil was evaluated. It was confinned that depending on the potato tuber selected at the point of purchase, the exposure to acrylamide varied from 7.0 to 153 μtg/person/day. Additional efforts in the food distribution chain are necessary to provide the consumers with potato tubers with the necessary characteristics to help mitigate the formation of acrylamide in the domestic environment. This presentation will discuss different scenarios and present the first results of the Spanish National project SAFEFRYING.

Peer Reviewed