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What is acrylamide?
Is there acrylamide in food?
How does cooking produce acrylamide?
Is there anything in the cooking process that can be changed to lower dietary acrylamide
exposure?
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What is acrylamide?
Acrylamide is a chemical used primarily as a building block in making polyacrylamide and acrylamide
copolymers. Polyacrylamide and acrylamide copolymers are used in many industrial processes, such as
the production of paper, dyes, and plastics, and in the treatment of drinking water and wastewater,
including sewage. They are also found in consumer products, such as caulking, food packaging, and
some adhesives. Trace amounts of acrylamide generally remain in these products.
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Organization of the United Nations stated that the levels of acrylamide in foods pose a major concern
and that more research is needed to determine the risk of dietary acrylamide exposure (2).
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method and temperature of the cooking process (8, 9). The best advice at this time is to follow
established dietary guidelines and eat a healthy, balanced diet that is low in fat and rich in high-fiber
grains, fruits, and vegetables.
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A series of case-control studies have investigated the relationship between dietary intake of acrylamide
and the risk of developing cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, larynx, large bowel, kidney,
breast, and ovary. These studies generally found no excess of tumors associated with acrylamide intake
(15, 16, 17, 18, 19). In the studies, however, not all acrylamide-containing foods were included in
estimating exposures. In addition, information in case-control studies about exposures is often based
on interviews (personal or through questionnaires) with the case and control subjects, and these
groups may differ in the accuracy of their recall about exposures. One factor that might influence recall
accuracy in cancer-related dietary studies is that diets are often altered after receiving a diagnosis of
cancer.
To avoid such limitations in accurately determining acrylamide exposure, biomarkers of exposure were
recently used in a Danish cohort study designed to evaluate the subsequent risk of breast cancer in
postmenopausal women (20). Among women with higher levels of acrylamide bound to the hemoglobin
in their blood, there was a statistically significant increase in risk of estrogen receptor-positive breast
cancer. This finding suggests an endocrine hormone-related effect, which would be consistent with the
results of a questionnaire-based cohort study in the Netherlands that found an excess of endometrial
and ovarian cancerbut not of postmenopausal breast cancerassociated with higher levels of
acrylamide exposure (21). Another cohort study from the Netherlands suggested a positive association
between dietary acrylamide and the risk of renal cell cancer, but not of prostate or bladder cancer (22).
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workers using acrylamide polymers to clarify water in coal preparation plants (23).
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Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, please visit WHOs Food Safety: Acrylamide
page.
For information about acrylamide from the National Toxicology Program (NTP), please visit NTP's Report
on Carcinogens.
Selected References
1. Stadler RH, Blank I, Varga N, et al. Acrylamide from Maillard reaction products. Nature 2002;
419(6906):449450.
2. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. World Health Organization. Summary
report of the sixty-fourth meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).
Retrieved July 24, 2008, from:
http://www.who.int/entity/ipcs/food/jecfa/summaries/summary_report_64_final.pdf
3. Mottram DS, Wedzicha BL, Dodson AT. Acrylamide is formed in the Maillard reaction. Nature 2002;
419(6906):448449.
4. Gertz C, Klostermann S. Analysis of acrylamide and mechanisms of its formation in deep-fried
products. European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology 2002; 104(11):762771.
5. Rydberg P, Eriksson S, Tareke E, et al. Investigations of factors that influence the acrylamide
content of heated foodstuffs. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2003; 51(24):70127018.
6. Kita A, Brathen E, Knutsen SH, Wicklund T. Effective ways of decreasing acrylamide content in
potato crisps during processing. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2004; 52(23):70117016.
7. Skog K, Viklund G, Olsson K, Sjoholm I. Acrylamide in home-prepared roasted potatoes. Molecular
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16. Mucci LA, Dickman PW, Steineck G, Adami HO, Augustsson K. Dietary acrylamide and cancer of the
large bowel, kidney, and bladder: Absence of an association in a population-based study in
Sweden. British Journal of Cancer 2003; 88(1):8489.
17. Mucci LA, Lindblad P, Steineck G, Adami HO. Dietary acrylamide and risk of renal cell cancer.
International Journal of Cancer 2004; 109(5):774776.
18. Mucci LA, Adami HO, Wolk A. Prospective study of dietary acrylamide and risk of colorectal cancer
among women. International Journal of Cancer 2006; 118(1):169173.
19. Mucci LA, Sandin S, Balter K, et al. Acrylamide intake and breast cancer risk in Swedish women.
Journal of the American Medical Association 2005; 293(11):13261327.
20. Olesen PT, Olsen A, Frandsen H, et al. Acrylamide exposure and incidence of breast cancer among
postmenopausal women in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health Study. International Journal of Cancer
2008; 122(9):20942100.
21. Hogervorst JG, Schouten LJ, Konings EJ, Goldbohm RA, van den Brandt PA. A prospective study of
dietary acrylamide intake and the risk of endometrial, ovarian, and breast cancer. Cancer
Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention 2007; 16(11):23042313.
22. Hogervorst JG, Schouten LJ, Konings EJ, Goldbohm RA, van den Brandt PA. Dietary acrylamide
intake and the risk of renal cell, bladder, and prostate cancer. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
2008; 87(5):14281438.
23. Mulloy KB. Two case reports of neurological disease in coal mine preparation plant workers.
American Journal of Industrial Medicine 1996; 30(1):5661.
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Related Resources
Chemicals in Meat Cooked at High Temperatures and Cancer Risk
Reviewed: July 29, 2008
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