Acrylamide is a chemical compound that is formed when frying, baking or grilling carbohydrate-rich foods at temperatures above 120°C or 248F, which has been fingered as a carcinogen by scientists. Most recently a study conducted by the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, has demonstrated a positive association between acrylamide and breast cancer in humans.

"Acrylamide is formed during the preparation of many ordinary foods. It is therefore important both for consumers and the food industry to find methods to reduce the acrylamide content," says Kit Granby, senior scientist at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark.

Over the course of the past five years, a collaborative project involving the National Food Institute and the Department of Systems Biology at the Technical University of Denmark, the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen and five Danish food companies has sought ways to reduce acrylamide in foods.

Researchers found that adding rosemary to wheat dough prior to baking buns at 225°C or 437F reduced the acrylamide content by up to 60 per cent. Even rosemary in small quantities – in one per cent of the dough – was enough to lower acrylamide content significantly.

Lab tests have also revealed that the addition of the flavonoids epicatechin and epigallocatechin from green tea reduced acrylamide content.

"Antioxidants are substances which inhibit the formation of free radicals in the food and eliminate free radicals in the body. Our tests indicate that free radicals are formed when cooking and potentially increasing the acrylamide content in certain foods," explains Rikke Vingborg Hedegaard, PhD at the Technical University of Denmark’s National Food Institute.

"However, the findings do not show a general association between antioxidants and reducing acrylamide in foods. The tests indicate that different antioxidants do not have the same effect on the formation of acrylamide, and that it is important how antioxidants are added to a product to have an effect on the acrylamide content," Rikke Vingborg Hedegaard added.

The aforementioned findings are just a few of many made by the research collaboration project. Other experiments have revealed that salt and the enzyme asparaginase may reduce the acrylamide content in potato products, as does soaking spuds for 2 hours prior to cooking and only heating them to a light brown.

The collaborative project’s findings have been published in a number of scientific journals, most recently in the journals European Food Research and Technology, Food Chemistry, the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry and the Journal of Food Engineering.

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TechnicalUniversity of Denmark (2008, March 4). A Little Rosemary Can Go A Long Way In Reducing Acrylamide In Food. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 4, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2008/02/080229142817.htm