Acrylamide: your questions answered

Acrylamide is used industrially for the manufacture of polyacrylamide which is used as flocculent for purifying drinking water. Other uses include its use as a papermaking aid and a soil conditioning agent. In 2002, Swedish studies revealed that high levels of acrylamide formed during the frying or baking of potato or cereal products. This raised worldwide public concern because studies in laboratory animals suggest acrylamide has the potential to cause cancer in humans.

Acrylamide has caused nerve damage in people who have been exposed to it as a result of occupational and accidental exposure. However, very little is known about its effect on humans via the diet, but on the basis of animal data and understanding of its biological effects, it is thought that acrylamide could possibly cause cancer. In studies on male animals, acrylamide was also shown to reduce fertility. Acrylamide is considered to be a genotoxic carcinogen. It has the potential to cause cancer by interacting with the genetic material (DNA) in cells. Based on independent expert scientific advice, the Agency believes that exposure to such chemicals should be as low as reasonably practicable.

No. Acrylamide appears to be formed in food by common cooking practices and so people are likely to have been exposed to acrylamide in their diet for some considerable time.

The Joint Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (JEFCA) recently concluded that, on the basis of animal studies, the levels of dietary exposure to acrylamide may be of concern to human health and therefore appropriate efforts to reduce acrylamide levels in food should continue.

It is not currently possible to determine the level of risk to human health. The UK independent Committee on Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COC) does not consider it valid to calculate numbers of anticipated human cancer cases from the results of animal studies. Given the uncertainties in exposure and the possible exposure to sources other than food, scientists have concluded that further research is needed before any definitive conclusions can be drawn on the cancer risks of acrylamide in food.

Acrylamide occurs naturally as a result of cooking starchy foods at high temperature. Therefore, it isn't possible to stop acrylamide from being produced or to remove it from food once it has been produced. However, research carried out by the FSA and internationally indicates that it is possible to reduce our acrylamide intake.

Our advice is that people should eat a healthy balanced diet, including plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, and other cereals. You should limit the amount of sugary and fatty foods that you eat, including chips and crisps, but there is no need to cut them out completely. Following this advice is the best way to maintain a healthy diet while reducing the amount of acrylamide you take into your body.

The Agency is not advising people to stop eating any particular foods. However, the Agency advises that as part of a balanced diet you should limit the amount of fried and fatty foods you eat, including chips and crisps. A healthy, balanced diet, including plenty of fruit and vegetables, will help to protect against some cancers.

As far as we know from the research to date, boiling food does not appear to produce acrylamide. Recent research carried out by the Agency found that there was no acrylamide in boiled or microwaved potatoes.

The Agency has funded several research projects on acrylamide that have further developed our understanding of how it is formed and measures to reduce it. The Agency is also currently carrying out a three-year rolling survey of acrylamide in UK retail products, to assess the extent to which food manufacturers are using acrylamide reduction measures, as put forward by the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU (CIAA).

The Agency continues to meet with its stakeholder group on process contaminants to discuss ways of reducing acrylamide exposure.

The Agency has shared its advice with stakeholders, including the food industry. We are working with the food industry to increase knowledge and understanding. As part of the international effort, the food industry is also carrying out research to find ways of reducing the levels of acrylamide in food. The CIAA (which represents the food and drink industry’s interests at the European and international level) has produced a document that outlines ways of reducing acrylamide in food manufacture and has also developed brochures for small businesses on reducing acrylamide in bread, biscuits, chips and crisps.

• A 2002 World Health Organisation (WHO) consultation on the health effects of acrylamide in food and a review by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) in 2005 concluded that more scientific research is needed.
• The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) has developed a Code of Practice for the reduction of acrylamide in food to disseminate best practice to manufacturers. A code of practice has also been developed for adoption by CAC for the reduction of 3-MCPD in acid hydrolysed vegetable products. Both of these codes of practice have been developed by the UK with the assistance of other countries/industrial bodies.
• The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), following a colloquium held in May 2008 to discuss the potential toxicity and risk associated with dietary exposure to acrylamide, has concluded that the existing risk assessment by JECFA for acrylamide does not need revising until the results of ongoing research are available.
• JECFA is expected to conduct a review of the new research in autumn 2009.

There are currently no regulatory limits for acrylamide in food. Experts from the World Health Organisation, the European Commission and the UK have all looked at the toxicology of acrylamide and concluded that the situation with regard to exposure from food is not clear and that more data is required. The evidence so far is inconclusive and provides no basis for setting regulatory limits for acrylamide in foods. We are, however, committed to ensuring that acrylamide in food is kept as low as reasonably practicable.

There is a strict regulatory limit set for the amount of acrylamide allowed to migrate from plastic food packaging into food. The substances used to manufacture plastic packaging are controlled by EC rules that fully apply in the UK. The specific migration limit in force means that acrylamide migrating into food from plastic food packaging should not be found at or above 0.01 milligrams per kilogram of food (10 parts per billion). This limit only applies to acrylamide migrating into food from plastic food packaging, and does not apply to acrylamide that forms during cooking.

Since polyacrylamide may be used by the paper and board industry, the Agency has carried out research to determine whether any acrylamide is present in paper and board packaging materials for food, and whether any acrylamide passes in to food from this packaging.

The main conclusion of this survey is that it is very unlikely that paper and board packaging is a source of acrylamide in food. There are EU-wide legal controls on acrylamide passing from plastics into food.

It is used as a cleaning agent, combining with solid material, making it easier to filter and remove unwanted substances from the water.

Acrylamide is used because it is the only substance (polymer) that will adequately remove certain small particles from water. As acrylamide is not toxic in the polymerised form in which it is added to water, the only risk is from the very small amount of non-polymerised acrylamide remaining within the polymer. This is minimised by production practices.

There is a legal limit set by the EU for drinking water. This is set at 0.1 microgram per litre of water.