Food Chemistry

9.7 Harmful Substances from Thermal Processes 491

Fig. 9.4.Formation of furan on heating food (according toYaylayan, 2006)

into Category III A2 of carcinogenic working
substances. According to EU guidelines for
drinking water, the concentration of acrylamide
in water should not exceed 0.1μg/l.
The occurrence of relatively high concentrations

of acrylamide in tobacco smoke has been known
for a long time, but in 2002 this compound was
described for the first time also as a constituent
in various thermally treated foods. In particu-
lar, processed potato products such as chips, but
also fine breads and cakes contain relatively high
concentrations (Table 9.11). Today, mainly sta-
ble isotope assays in combination with GC–MS
or LC–MS with the use of deuterium- or carbon-

Table 9.11.Maximum concentrations and variation
ranges of acrylamide in selected foods

Food Concentration (μg/kg)

Gingerbread 7800 (80–7800)
Potato chips 3700 (100–3700)
Crispbread 2800 (25–2800)
Roasted nuts 2000 (10–2000)
Ground coffee 500
Roasted meat 50
Bread 40

13-labelled acrylamide are used for the quanti-

tative determination. The large range of varia-

tions in the concentrations measured in food in-

dicates that the raw material and the process con-

ditions exert a significant influence on the forma-

tion of acrylamide. Thus, it could be shown, e. g.,

that the formation of acrylamide in potato prod-

ucts clearly fluctuates depending on the variety of

potato (Fig. 9.5) and the concentrations of acryl-

Fig. 9.5.Formation of acrylamide during the frying of

potato strips from different varieties of potatoes (ac-

cording toAmreinet al., 2003)