FDA Urged to Limit Acrylamide in Food

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http://www.cspinet.org/new/200306041.html

 

FDA Urged to Limit Acrylamide in Food

CSPI Says Companies Should Reduce Levels of Known Carcinogen

 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should require food manufacturers to

limit the amount of acrylamide in their products, says the nonprofit Center for

Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). CSPI petitioned the agency to set

“interim acceptable levels” for the chemical, a known carcinogen and neurotoxin

that forms when certain carbohydrate-rich foods are cooked at very high

temperatures.

FDA’s tests of different categories of food found wide brand-to-brand

differences in acrylamide levels. For instance, acrylamide levels in 12 brands

of frozen French fries (before being cooked at home) varied from 20 parts per

billion (ppb) to 218 ppb. CSPI told the FDA that the median level of acrylamide

observed in a category of food—77 ppb in the case of frozen French fries—should

be set as an interim acceptable level. Manufacturers producing fries at the

higher levels should be required to reduce them to 77 ppb or less.

“Acrylamide is a powerful carcinogen and is definitely something one wants less

of in food,” said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson at a Washington,

D.C., news conference. “Clearly, some food processors are able to make food with

much less acrylamide than others. All we ask is that FDA require those

manufacturers that are at the high end of the scale to bring their acrylamide

levels down to that of many of their competitors.”

Since Swedish scientists first discovered acrylamide in food last year, other

national governments, the FDA, the World Health Organization (WHO), and food

companies have measured acrylamide levels in a wide variety of foods and begun

to investigate ways to reduce levels of the chemical. Researchers earlier this

year found that acrylamide is formed when glucose reacts at high temperatures

with asparagine, an amino acid. Potato chips, french fries, and coffee—which is

roasted before being brewed—are among the biggest sources of acrylamide in the

average American diet.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the FDA have already determined

safe levels for acrylamide in water and food. Because a flocculant made from

acrylamide is sometimes used in the treatment of drinking water EPA requires

water suppliers to limit acrylamide to less than 0.5 ppb. And, in June 2002, the

FDA determined that 12 micrograms of acrylamide per person per day is safe in

terms of the nervous system. CSPI estimates that the average American takes in

about 36 micrograms—an amount three times higher than the safe limit.

“No one is recommending that people eat less whole wheat bread or breakfast

cereals,” Jacobson said. “But consumers are well advised to eat less of those

foods that have the most acrylamide and that are least nutritious anyway, like

potato chips, French fries, and coffee. Also, consumers should avoid overcooking

foods like toast and oven-baked French fries.”

In its petition, CSPI estimated that acrylamide in foods may account for roughly

several thousand cancers per year in the U.S., although the amount could be

higher or lower depending on the difference in acrylamide’s potency between

animals and humans.

“Acrylamide probably causes on the order of a thousand new cases of cancer per

year in the United States, perhaps as many as several thousand. That’s certainly

not as many cases as tobacco, but certainly enough to warrant the FDA’s taking

action to reduce acrylamide in food,” said Dale Hattis, Ph.D., an

risk-assessment expert at Clark University who joined Jacobson at the news

conference. Hattis is one of seven experts in environmental health and

toxicology who wrote FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan in support of CSPI’s

petition.

The FDA also found low levels of acrylamide in baby foods and infant formulas.

CSPI said that because those foods make up a large part of infant diets, and

because infants may be more susceptible to the carcinogenic or neurotoxic

effects of acrylamide, CSPI urged the FDA to set a “particularly protective”

limit on acrylamide in those products, perhaps down to undetectable levels.

FDA-tested foods that had the highest levels of acrylamide in their categories

include Pringles Sweet Mesquite BBQ Flavored Potato Crisps, Folgers Classic

Roast coffee, Wheatena Toasted Wheat Cereal, and Ore Ida Crispers.

The CSPI petition is the first U.S. proposal to require food companies to reduce

acrylamide in foods.

 

 

 

 

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