Yahoo! News - Are We Ready to Fret About Our Fries? : " Scientists don't want to stir up a super-sized food scare that might later prove unwarranted. Yet, they are alarmed by tests that are finding acrylamide in hundreds of cooked foods — from bread and potato chips to almonds and coffee.
The dilemma is heightened in California, where voter-approved Proposition 65 is supposed to trigger public notices on substances "known to the state to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm." State officials deemed acrylamide such a substance in 1990, long before it was found in food. At the time, it was known mainly as a chemical useful in treating sewage water. Concerns about human exposure were minor.
Now that it has been discovered in the food supply, California scientists are reassessing the risks of acrylamide. The attorney general's office has urged caution, saying too little is known about the dangers to people. >>>Since the discovery of acrylamide in food two years ago, researchers around the world have detected it in dozens of dishes. By some estimates, it might be present in as much as 40% of the food people eat. But it is particularly prevalent in starchy foods such as potato chips and French fries, which are so popular that the average American gulps down 28 pounds a year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The simple act of cooking, scientists have found, causes acrylamide to develop naturally in carbohydrate-rich foods. Frying, baking, roasting or otherwise cooking at high temperatures releases the organic chemical."
The dilemma is heightened in California, where voter-approved Proposition 65 is supposed to trigger public notices on substances "known to the state to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm." State officials deemed acrylamide such a substance in 1990, long before it was found in food. At the time, it was known mainly as a chemical useful in treating sewage water. Concerns about human exposure were minor.
Now that it has been discovered in the food supply, California scientists are reassessing the risks of acrylamide. The attorney general's office has urged caution, saying too little is known about the dangers to people. >>>Since the discovery of acrylamide in food two years ago, researchers around the world have detected it in dozens of dishes. By some estimates, it might be present in as much as 40% of the food people eat. But it is particularly prevalent in starchy foods such as potato chips and French fries, which are so popular that the average American gulps down 28 pounds a year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The simple act of cooking, scientists have found, causes acrylamide to develop naturally in carbohydrate-rich foods. Frying, baking, roasting or otherwise cooking at high temperatures releases the organic chemical."
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