The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set an exposure limit of 0.3 milligrams per cubic meter (0.3 mg/m3) for acrylamide in workplace air for an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek.
The EU has created a much stricter benchmark for safe levels of acrylamide in food (at least related to the growth of tumors) at 0.17 µg/day per kilogram of body weight. Doing the math, a person weighing 154 lbs (70 kg) could safely consume 26 µg of acrylamide each day.
The link between acrylamide in food and cancer is not clear. The only studies to show a clear link between acrylamide and cancer are animal studies. These involved very high levels of the chemical. Studies that followed people over time did not find a link between eating foods with acrylamide and cancer.
The US National Toxicology Program (NTP) has classified acrylamide as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies acrylamide as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”
The tolerable daily intake (TDI) of acrylamide to avoid neurotoxicity is estimated at 40 µg/kg bw/day, and to avoid carcinogenic effects, 2.6 µg/kg bw/day is recommended (Tardiff et al., 2010) . Elias et al. (2017) reported that the acrylamide concentration in cereal products is, on average 1390 µg/kg. ...
However, the amount of acrylamide in your average brewed coffee is 0.45 micrograms, according to a widely cited 2013 Swedish study. Compare this to the 39-82 micrograms of acrylamide that you'll find in your average serving of fast-food french fries, and that cup of coffee is looking less carcinogenic by the minute.
Once in your body, acrylamide enters your body fluids. Acrylamide and its breakdown products leave your body mostly through urine; small amounts may leave through feces, exhaled air, and breast milk.
Histopathological evidence of acrylamide-induced peripheral neuropathy has been observed in rats receiving oral doses as low as 1 mg/kg/day for 3 months; the observed degenerative effects in peripheral nerve fibers at such dose levels have been shown to be completely reversible within a few months following the ...
Nor is it necessary. Removing any one or two foods from your diet would not have a significant effect on overall exposure to acrylamide. However, here are some steps you can take to help decrease the amount of acrylamide that you and your family consume: Frying causes acrylamide formation.
Common foods that stand out – based on the relatively high levels of acrylamide they contain and frequency with which they're eaten by children and adults – include French fries, potato and other chips, some crackers and cereals.
Oats have the second highest acrylamide forming potential of rye, wheat, barley and oats. Several studies have found high levels of acrylamide in oat products that exceed the benchmark limits within the EU. These limits might be strict limits in future which every food producer needs to follow.
Acrylamide has been shown to cause cancer in animals exposed to very high doses, and although there is no consistent epidemiological evidence on the effect of acrylamide from food consumption on cancer in humans, both the U.S. National Toxicology Program and the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health ...
The major food sources of acrylamide are French fries and potato chips; crackers, bread, and cookies; breakfast cereals; canned black olives; prune juice; and coffee. Acrylamide levels in food vary widely depending on the manufacturer, the cooking time, and the method and temperature of the cooking process (5, 6).
Bread often contains what may be considered to be low amounts of acrylamide. However, due to its high consumption rate, its contribution to dietary exposure is still considerable.
Exposure to acrylamide can occur through the skin and possibly vapor inhalation, which can be caused by the polymerization process during work with monomeric acrylamide [11]. Monomeric acrylamide is neurotoxic and probably carcinogenic to humans.
High temperature cooking, such as frying, roasting, or baking, is most likely to cause acrylamide formation. Boiling and steaming do not typically form acrylamide. Acrylamide is found mainly in foods made from plants, such as potato products, grain products, or coffee.
Acrylamide in oil
Acrylamide is not found in cooking oil but if starchy food like potatoes are fried in oil and that oil is reused, then acrylamide levels can build up.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration monitors acrylamide levels in certain foods, and amounts in peanuts and peanut products are low or undetectable. If present, acrylamide naturally forms when peanuts are roasted; it is not added to peanut butter by manufacturers.
Air fryers themselves aren't a cause of cancer, but air frying does produce certain compounds such as acrylamide, which is considered a "probable" carcinogen.
Tests with antioxidants
Even rosemary in small quantities – in one per cent of the dough – was enough to reduce the acrylamide content significantly. Flavonoids are another type of antioxidant found, among other things, in vegetables, chocolate and tea.
Acrylamide can modify the cysteine residues of presynaptic proteins, thereby significantly reducing the neurotransmitter release, which eventually leads to process degeneration [7,12].
Nervous system effects such as muscle weakness, numbness in hands and feet, sweating, unsteadiness, and clumsiness were reported in some acrylamide workers. However, most people are not exposed to acrylamide levels high enough to cause these effects.