Acrylamide Research

Acrylamide Research

Acrylamide Research. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

A.J. Bussan, Assoc. Professor for Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently spent some time talking about acrylamide which forms in some foods like potatoes when they are cooked at high temperatures.

BUSSAN: Acrylamide is present in most kinds of cooked potato. It poses a potential risk because of the role or the toxicology of acrylamide. One of the reasons it’s important in potato is because it’s actually the single largest source of acrylamide in the diet in America and Europe and that’s why all of a sudden it became a really important issue.

He says what they are trying to do is to mitigate the issue by avoiding the risk and being proactive.

BUSSAN: The reality is we’re trying to improve the competitiveness of the entire industry by saying that potatoes don’t really pose a risk and so that they’re good for the consumers and that this isn’t really a concern and that’s really at the heart of what we’re trying to do.

But he says people are still asking if acrylamide is still an issue.

BUSSAN: Most of it is because processing has been modified to address acrylamide in the plants - in the chip plants and in the french fry plants and progress has been made and we don’t want to discount that. The other part of it has been little discussion of acrylamide at the federal level. Part of that is because of the communication efforts of the snack foods association, U.S. Potato Board and others and trying to show what efforts have gone forward to this point.

More tomorrow on this important issue.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. 

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