I've never heard of this one! I'm off to research!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...h_acrylamide_dc

Health - Reuters

FDA Finds Cancer-Risk Acrylamides in More Food
Thu Mar 25, 2:47 PM ET Add Health - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Acrylamide, a cancer-causing substance that caused scares when it was found in fried potatoes and other popular foods, is also found in olives, prune juice and teething biscuits, U.S. regulators said on Thursday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) released figures on a new batch of food it tested and confirmed earlier findings that suggest cooked and especially fried snacks contain the highest levels -- potato chips, pretzels and popcorn.

To their relief, officials found no acrylamides in infant formula but said they would continue looking as it is a sole source of food for so many babies.

Scientists stress that they have no idea what any of this means, yet, for human health.

Acrylamide is naturally formed in some starchy foods when they are fried, baked, or roasted at high temperatures. No one suspected it was so pervasive in food until Swedish scientists announced they had found it in 2002.

"To date, acrylamide is known to cause cancer and reproductive problems in animals at high doses and is a neurotoxin in humans at high doses," the FDA said in a statement.

"Although initial reports of acrylamide's presence in some foods raised concerns because of possible links with increased risk of cancer in some laboratory animals, it was largely unknown how pervasive it was in the food supply, and its true public health significance for humans," the FDA added.

"Based on the current understanding of the science, FDA continues to advise consumers to eat a balanced diet, choosing a variety of foods that are low in trans- and saturated fat and rich in high fiber grains, fruits and vegetables."

Trans-fats are created when fat is processed and clog the arteries like cholesterol does.

TESTING POPULAR FOODS

To find out how much acrylamide people might be eating, the FDA has been testing popular food products. For its latest sample the FDA bought 750 different foods from bread to pancake syrup.

It found no acrylamide in the processed cheeses, milk and ice cream tested. Relatively high levels were found in arrowroot cookies -- commonly given to small children -- teething biscuits, sweet potatoes and lower levels in some prepared meals such as turkey and vegetable dinners.

Other childhood favorites such as peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies were also sources.

Home-cooked meats seemed acrylamide-free but fried chicken and fast-food chicken nuggets contained the compounds.

Fresh fruits and vegetables seemed clear but bottled prune juice and black olives had relatively high levels of acrylamides.

The FDA says it plans more studies on just how toxic acrylamides may be.

In June a team at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, found that acrylamides can mutate DNA.

Experts say the best way to find out if acrylamide causes cancer in people is to do epidemiological studies -- studies of populations to see if people who eat more foods containing acrylamides have higher rates of cancer.

One such study, published by U.S. and Swedish researchers in January 2003, found no link between acrylamide consumption and the risk of bladder or kidney cancer.

But a consumer group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is lobbying for limits on acrylamide in food.

Rhona Applebaum, Executive Vice President of the National Food Processors Association, argued this would not be necessary.

"FDA's research on acrylamide levels in various foods is neither a warning to consumers nor a finding of risk associated with any particular foods or individual brands," she said in a statement.

More FDA data can be found on the Internet at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/pestadd.html#acrylamide.

If you do a search of this Research/Media forum for "acrylamide", you'll come up with lots of information and discussions on the topic.


hth,

Doreen

If the acrylamides were found in beef, I'm sure the health experts would be screaming that that is proof that red meat kills. No one wants to say that black olives and prune juice are bad for you.


Of course the amounts found are small and likely to be harmless, but I am still going to avoid potato chips, pretzels, popcorn, arrowroot cookies, and teething biscuits.

I just looked at the FDA data http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/acrydat2.html and noticed that potato products seemed to be especially high in acrylamides. Also shredded wheat and Graham crackers were rather high.

Acrylamide is frequently the byproduct of a chemical reaction when a high-carbohydrate food has been heated to a very high temperature (for example deep fried or roasted).

I think this link is good:

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/acrydata.html#last

But why olives? They're not high carbohydrate. Do they get cooked before they're canned?

Phew!! I was afraid the cancer warning was going to be about a sweetner. I can live without olives. I don't mind having less olives but now that I've found my sweet alternatives it would stink to have to give them up.
Annie

The only difference between green olives and black olives is ripeness. Unripe olives are green and fully ripe olives are black. Olives are cured or pickled before consumption, using various methods including oil-cured, water-cured, brine-cured, dry-cured, and lye-cured. Green olives must be soaked in a lye solution before brining, whereas ripe black olives can proceed straight to brining. The longer the olive is permitted to ferment in its own brine, the less bitter and more intricate its flavor will become.

The USDA database did not test green olives or specify the curing/pickling process used on the black olives that were tested.

I wonder if that means olive oil is high in it? That'd be almost funny given how promoted olive oil is for your health.

Well, this information is interesting but it really sounds like they don't know really if acrylamides is toxic in the levels we ingest. And if its in all baked goods, and olives, then humans have probably been eating it for a long, long time.