Effect of consumer's decisions on acrylamide exposure during the preparation of French fries. part 1: Frying conditions

Variability in home-cooking practices affects dietary exposure to acrylamide, limiting risk evaluation. Two observational tests (controlled and randomized) involving 127 volunteers was designed to investigate the influence of consumer decisions on acrylamide formation during the preparation of French fries. Consumer practices were recorded during pre-frying, frying and post-frying stages. Reducing sugar content, asparagine, moisture, acrylamide, moisture, weight loss and color were evaluated. In the controlled assay, mean acrylamide content was 508 μg/kg and volunteers took a mean frying time of 91.9 s (87.5–96.4, C.I. 95%). The narrow confidence interval of 8.9 s represented an increase of 120 μg/kg in the acrylamide content of the fried potato. Average acrylamide content in the randomized assay (215 μg/kg, 150–280 μg/kg, C.I. 95%) was significantly lower than in the controlled assay. Amongst the culinary practices applied for the potato variety evaluated, washing of the potato strips significantly reduced acrylamide content in French fries. The percentage of samples with acrylamide lower than the benchmark value (500 μg/kg) was 54% and 93% for the controlled and randomized assays, respectively. Estimated average dietary exposure to acrylamide from French fries in adults was 5.65 μg/day, which corresponds to a margin of exposure of 2105 for carcinogenicity.