Spurred on by discussions at a meeting earlier this month of the EU's working group on industrial contaminants, the Commission is set to organise full presentations and findings of current EU projects on acrylamide, including those funded by the UK's Food Standards Agency: plus a discussion on the development of codes of practice to reduce the level of acrylamide in food.
Acrylamide hit the headlines in 2002 when scientists at the Swedish Food Administration first reported unexpectedly high levels of this potential carcinogen in carbohydrate-rich foods heated to high temperatures, such as chips, roast potatoes and bread.
Since then, an international effort of more than 200 research projects has been initiated around the world with their findings co-ordinated by national governments, the European Union and the United Nations.
At the working group meeting, member states discussed the findings of the Feb 2005 JECFA (the UN's committee on food additives) report and asked for an update on the international collaboration of HEATOX, an EU-funded project currently investigating health risks from chemicals that can be formed in heat-treated foods and food products, such as acrylamide.
Participants at the working group meeting this month also heard that a discussion paper on acrylamide, will be presented at the 37th Session of Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (CCFAC), held from 25 -29 April 2005 at The Hague in the Netherlands.
Acrylamide appears to form as a result of a reaction between specific amino acids and sugars found in foods reaching high temperatures in their cooking processes.
Judging the presence and impact of acrylamide in consumers, a new study released earlier this month from researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, suggests the amount of acrylamide eaten in the diet does not pose an increased risk of breast cancer among the women in the study. Although they caution their findings only relate to breast cancer.
Animal and laboratory studies in the past have shown higher levels of certain types of tumours in rats, including mammary gland tumours, but according to the researchers they were exposed to acrylamide levels 1,000 to 100,000 times greater than levels humans are exposed to through diet.
Elsewhere, a global risk analysis of nearly 7000 food items carried out recently by the UN finds French fries, potato crisps and coffee recording the highest contamination levels, but confirms that recent studies by food industry show processing methods could significantly reduce the levels.
In the absence of any health-based guidance values (tolerable intake levels) for acrylamide, and a bid to construe a way forward to slicing this potential carcinogen out of the food chain, scientists meeting in Rome last month assessed national dietary intake data for 17 countries.
"The major contributing foods to total exposure for most countries were potato chips (16-30 per cent), potato crisps (6-46 per cent), coffee (13-39 per cent), pastry and sweet biscuits (10-20 per cent) and bread and rolls/toasts (10-30 per cent). Others foods items contributed less than 10 per cent of the total exposure," the committee reports.
Tackling this figure, the UN group urged national food safety authorities to work towards improving food preparation technologies that "lower significantly the acrylamide content in critical foods."
In a review submitted to the UN group by Europe's €600 billion food and drink industry (CIAA) apparently recent processing investigations have achieved a 30 to 40 per cent reduction in acrylamide levels of potato crisps by introducing several adjustments in the existing production procedures.