FDA Launches Acrylamide Investigations

You knew french fries and potato chips werent health foods. Sure, theyre veggies, but their deep-fat frying adds scads of fat. Depending on whos doing the cooking, that fat can be the saturated type, which can lead to clogged arteries. But until April, who could have suspected that these oh-so-yummy golden-brown spuds were also laced with a carcinogen–acrylamide, the building block of some plastics?

This news spread like wildfire, further defaming the reputation of foods that are dietary staples for all too many U.S. diners. There were two consolations: Scores of other foods also appear to host traces of acrylamide, and no one has yet established whether its quantity in any food constitutes a threat to human health.

Last spring, those first reports of acrylamide in foods caught regulatory and nutrition communities throughout the world off guard. Theyve been scrambling ever since to make sense of why cooking should impart this compound.

On Sept. 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration hosted a meeting in suburban Washington, D.C., to unveil a draft federal action plan on acrylamide.

Were dealing with a matter of public health significance, observed Lester M. Crawford Jr., the agencys deputy commissioner. He said the presence of acrylamide in food is disturbing . . . not so much because of what we know about the chemical–which is relatively little–but rather because of what we dont know about it.

To help resolve those unknowns, his agency has developed a research agenda for the months ahead.

Probing impacts of the U.S. diet

Recently, FDA developed a test protocol for reliably quantifying acrylamide concentrations in food. It has used it to preliminarily confirm what government agencies in Sweden and several other European countries reported earlier this year–that the chemical laces a broad range of cooked foods, especially breads and potato products.

In its new fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, FDA will test many more food samples–some gleaned locally, others from across the nation. The goal is to establish how widely concentrations of acrylamide vary within a given food type, such as potato chips or crackers.

The agency also plans a total diet study using store-bought samples of foods. The findings, weighted to reflect the quantities of each food consumed, will be summed to estimate an individuals typical daily intake of acrylamide.

A preliminary assessment of human exposures was presented at the Sept. 30 meeting by Maureen L. Storey, acting director of the Center for Food Nutrition Policy at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Alexandria. She reported that her centers calculations indicate that for adults, likely daily consumption of acrylamide from food runs from 0.5 to 0.8 micrograms per kilogram of body weight. For children, average exposure is probably double that, she said. However, adults whose diets favor the most heavily tainted foods could down as much as 6.2 g/kg daily, and their children could consume up to 18 g/kg each day.

These estimates all exceed the Environmental Protection Agencys 0.2 g/kg per day recommended limit for consumption of acrylamide in drinking water, Storey noted. However, she added, EPA has conceded that the impact of consumption at even their low limit remains unknown.

U.S. toxicity tests planned

In an attempt to resolve acrylamides risk, FDA has asked its National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, Ark., to begin short-term animal tests to compare how much acrylamide the body takes up from drinking water as compared to from food. If the availability of the compound from these two sources proves similar, then a host of existing toxicological data–performed to evaluate acrylamides use in water-treatment plants–can be borrowed to gauge impacts from low-dose exposures in food. If the body takes up acrylamide more readily from food than from water, then a host of new toxicological-impact studies may be needed.

One measure of human exposure to acrylamide is the formation of adducts–fragments of acrylamide bound to DNA or proteins in the body. FDA plans to study this process in animals fed acrylamide-laced foods, and correlate those data with adduct measurements from people whose only known exposure to acrylamide is through food.

FDA has also begun discussing with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the addition of acrylamide-adduct monitoring to CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. That survey periodically collects biological samples and health information from a huge, representative cross-section of the U.S. population.

Probing ways to limit acrylamide formation

In early October, four separate research laboratories reported data linking the development of acrylamide in food with a type of nonenzymatic browning known as the Maillard reaction (SN: 10/5/02, p. 213: Hot Spuds: Golden path to acrylamide in food). This flavorful chemistry not only imparts a golden color to french fries and bread crusts but also darkens roasted and fried meats.

However, at least one of those studies suggested that short-circuiting the formation of acrylamide wont be easy because its raw ingredients are found in most foods.

To investigate whether there are ways to interrupt the process–perhaps by tying up those ingredients before they have a chance to create acrylamide–FDA scientists will be collaborating with their colleagues at the National Center for Food Safety and Technology in Summit-Argo, Ill., a consortium of FDA, the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and a host of food industries.

Finally, FDA plans to nominate acrylamide and its reactive breakdown product–glycidamide–as its top priority compounds for general toxicity testing through the National Toxicology Program. Its studies would focus on the potential carcinogenicity of these compounds from chronic exposure and investigate possible mechanisms of action.

The snack food industry strongly supports the FDAs comprehensive action plan, says Jim McCarthy, president of the Snack Food Association. The agency is asking the right questions, he says, and moving to determine whether any additional steps are necessary.

As further developments emerge on food-borne acrylamide, FDA has pledged to inform both the nutrition community and the public. On Oct. 28–30, the agency will host a workshop titled: Acrylamide in Food–What do we need to know? What are the responses? In December, FDA will also host discussions on the new data about acrylamide formation at a professional meeting on contaminants and natural toxicants in food.