An exploratory study to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of Lebanese residents towards acrylamide.

INTRODUCTION: For years, heat treatment has been an essential method for ensuring mature food that meet the desired quality and safety characteristics. However, this process could lead to the formation of harmful compounds such as acrylamide. In this study we aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPs) of the Lebanese population toward the potential risk associated with acrylamide. MATERIALS & METHODS: An online survey (n = 598) was conducted among residents in Lebanon aged 18 years and above. The survey was divided into five sections including participants' sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practice sections, and some questions related to consumer's preferences. RESULTS & DISCUSSION: The results showed that the majority of the participants had low food safety knowledge regarding acrylamide. Specifically, 82.9% of the consumers had no idea about the chemical, its formation, the foods with a high risk of acrylamide formation and the health risks associated with its exposure. Despite lack of knowledge, good domestic food practices (storage, pre-treatment) were noticed among participants. Moreover, the majority of consumers (> 80%) showed positive attitude towards proper acrylamide labeling. Participants with a bachelor's degree appeared to have a more positive attitude toward food safety compared to those with no qualifications (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Despite the high consumption of acrylamide by the consumers in Lebanon through fried potatoes, bread, and coffee, the majority have no idea about acrylamide's presence in food, its sources and its adverse health effects. Raising awareness among the public, involving policy makers in addressing the issue of clear labeling and encouraging the adoption of alternative practices to reduce acrylamide are all crucial to protect consumers' health in Lebanon and promote healthier food consumption habits.

A green-footprint approach for parallel multiclass analysis of contaminants in roasted coffee via LC-HRMS.

The development and validation of a simple, comprehensive, and environment-friendly procedure to determine pesticide residues, naturally occurring and processing contaminants in roasted coffee is presented. A solid-liquid extraction of pesticides and mycotoxins with ethyl acetate and the concurrent partition of acrylamide to an aqueous phase follows a parallel analytical strategy that requires a single analytical portion to determine contaminants that are typically analyzed by dedicated single residue methods. The partition rules the lipids out of the aqueous extract before an "in-tube" dispersive solid phase microextraction (dSPME) for acrylamide retention. This is followed by the elution with buffer prior to injection. This extract is independently introduced into the system front end followed by the injection of the compounds from the organic phase, yet all spotted in the same run. A novel liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) method setup enables the quantification of 186 compounds at 10 µg/kg, 226 at 5 µg/kg, and the acrylamide at 200 µg/kg for a total of 414 molecules, with acceptable recoveries (70-120%) and precision (RSD < 20%) making this strategy significantly faster and cost-effective than the dedicated single residue methods. Even though the presence of chlorpyrifos, acrylamide, and ochratoxin A was confirmed on samples of different origins, the findings were below the limit of quantification. During the storage of raw coffee, no proof of masking of OTA was found; however, condensation with glucose was evidenced during thermal processing experiments with sucrose by using stable isotope labeling (SIL). No detected conjugates were found in roasted nor in commercial sugar-added torrefacto samples, an industrial processing usually carried out above the decomposition temperature of the disaccharide.

Identifying high-risk factors and mitigation strategies for acrylamide formation in air-fried lotus root chips: Impact of cooking parameters, including temperature, time, presoaking, and seasoning.

This study was conducted to identify high-risk factors and mitigation strategies for acrylamide formation in air-fried lotus root chips by studying the impact of various cooking parameters, including temperature, time, presoaking, and pre-seasoning treatments. The temperature and time had a surprisingly high impact on acrylamide formation. The chips prepared at high temperatures with longer cooking times contained an extremely high acrylamide content, reaching 12,786 ng/g (e.g., 170°C/19 min). A particularly concerning discovery was that the chips with extremely high acrylamide content (up to 17 times higher than the EU benchmark level for potato chips) did not appear overcooked or taste burnt. Higher cooking temperatures required shorter cooking times to properly cook lotus root chips for consumption. A high temperature with a short cooking time (170°C/13 min) greatly benefited acrylamide reduction compared to low temperature with a long cooking time (150°C/19 min). Presoaking in a 0.1% acetic acid solution and pre-seasoning with 1% salt reduced acrylamide levels by 61% and 47%, respectively. However, presoaking in water, vinegar solution, and citric acid solution did not significantly decrease the acrylamide content in the chips. Furthermore, some seasonings significantly increased acrylamide levels (up to 7.4 times higher). For the first time, these findings underscore the high risks associated with air-frying lotus root chips without considering these factors. This study also provides proper air-frying parameters and pretreatment strategies for minimizing acrylamide formation in air-fried lotus chips.

Acrylamide in potato chips in Iran, health risk assessment and mitigation.

This study aimed to determine the acrylamide content in potato chips sold in Kermanshah, Iran and assess the potential health concerns associated with acrylamide exposure. HPLC-DAD was used to analyse 120 samples across 40 brands. The possible non-carcinogenic risk index for adults was below 1 for all 40 brands (100%), but for children it was only below 1 for 9 brands (22.5%) and above 1 for 31 brands (77.5%). Regarding the possible carcinogenic risk index, for adults only 1 out of 40 brands rated > 10-4, whereas for children all brands rated > 10-4. This shows that children's exposure to acrylamide through potato chips consumption in Kermanshah can be considered a risk on cancer and exposure of adults requires attention and monitoring. The best way to reduce acrylamide in potato chips and associated health risks is to improve the production process, especially temperature and time.

Acrylamide bioaccessibility in potato and veggie chips. Impact of in vitro colonic fermentation on the non-bioaccessible fraction.

Potato-based products contribute largely to the daily intake of acrylamide. In addition to potato crisps, the European Commission has included veggie crisps in the list of foods that should be monitored for their acrylamide content. In the present study, acrylamide content in potato and veggie chips (sweet potato, beetroot and carrot) and their bioaccessibility after in vitro digestion was assessed. The non-bioaccessible fraction was also submitted to in vitro fermentation under colonic conditions. Faecal samples from volunteers of three age groups (children, adolescents and adults) were used to evaluate the microbiota effect on the acrylamide availability. Sweet potato chips exhibited the highest acrylamide content (2342 µg/kg), followed by carrot (1279 µg/kg), beetroot (947 µg/kg) and potato chips (524 µg/kg). After in vitro digestion, acrylamide bioaccessibility was significantly lower in veggie chips (59.7-60.4 %) than in potato chips (71.7 %). Potato and sweet potato chips showed the significantly lowest acrylamide content in the non-bioaccessible fraction (22.8 and 24.1 %, respectively) as compared with beetroot chips (28.4 %). After the fermentation step, acrylamide percentage in the soluble fraction of veggie chips ranged from 43.03 to 71.89 %, the highest values being observed in sweet potato chips fermented with microbiota from children. This fact would involve that the acrylamide was released from the non-bioaccessible fractions by the microbiota. These findings point out that the levels of potentially absorbable acrylamide after the complete gastrointestinal process could be modulated by both the food matrix composition and the microbiota. These factors should be further considered for a more precise risk assessment of dietary acrylamide in humans.

Study the interaction of amino acids, sugars, thermal treatment and cooking technique on the formation of acrylamide in potato models.

This study unveiled the effect of the suspected precursors of acrylamide (asparagine, glutamine) combined/separated with different formulations of glucose, fructose, and sucrose. To better understand the interaction between acrylamide precursors, cooking technique (deep vs air frying), and temperature (170 °C vs 190 °C), seven potato models from starch, sugars, amino acids, water and hydrocolloids (alginate and agar) were formulated. In line with previous findings, the present results showed that asparagine, glucose and fructose played an important role in acrylamide formation in these synthetic potato models. Furthermore, glutamine and sodium alginate might have an inhibitory effect on acrylamide formation. A significant impact of frying technique was also revealed. On the other hand, GC-FID analysis detected acrylamide in only these three models, (glucose-fructose, sucrose and asparagine-glucose/fructose/sucrose models > LOD 333.33 µg.kg-1).

Assessment of the acrylamide bioaccessibility in cereal and potato-based foods after in vitro digestion.

Acrylamide bioaccessibility during and after in vitro gastrointestinal digestion of cereal and potato-based foods was monitored. Isolated vs combined meals were evaluated with the aim of investigating acrylamide-food matrix interactions. The meals considered were breakfast cereals, biscuits, patatas a lo pobre (patatas-pobre) and French fries for isolated foods; breakfast cereals with yoghurt, biscuits with milk, patatas-pobre with scrambled eggs and French fries with meat steak for combined foods. The non-bioaccessible fraction of acrylamide tended to decrease during the digestion process in all the systems. However, the final bioaccessible acrylamide was affected by the food matrix composition (fibre, protein, sugars and lipids). The digestion of breakfast cereals, biscuits with milk, patatas-pobre and patatas-pobre with scrambled eggs led to acrylamide bioaccessibility below the initial content of the contaminant in the meals. In absolute values, the combined consumption of biscuits and milk significantly reduced the bioaccessible acrylamide compared with isolated biscuits (from 212 to 122 ng; p < 0.05). The presence of protein sources (egg or meat steak) in the potato-based products significantly decreased the acrylamide bioaccessibility, which was more prominent in the French fries-meat steak system (from 2100 to 1698 ng; p < 0.05). These findings establish the importance of considering complete meals and not only isolated foods as well as the study of the non-bioaccessible fractions for a better understanding of acrylamide bioaccessibility, its recovery and interactions during gastrointestinal digestion.

Acrylamide in coffee: What is known and what still needs to be explored. A review.

Acrylamide (AA) is a product of food heating process that is widely present in cooked foods and known to be toxic to humans. Exposure data has revealed coffee to be one of the sources of this toxicant in adult diets. A great deal of effort has been invested into finding ways of reducing AA formation during coffee processing. However, despite the accumulated knowledge and mitigation strategies applied so far, AA reduction in coffee is still a challenge compared to other heat-processed foods in which the wider raw-material selection and progress in technological processes and/or changes in the recipes are possible at the industrial level. This review presents a critical analysis of the accumulated knowledge on the formation of AA in coffee as well as on the mitigation strategies that have been investigated to date, with a focus on current applicability in industry and little explored topics.

A novel single step solid-phase extraction combined with bromine derivatization method for rapid determination of acrylamide in coffee and its products by stable isotope dilution ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem triple quadrupole electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

This work aimed to establish a novel determination method for acrylamide in coffee and its products by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Acrylamide in samples were prepared by a single-step solid-phase extraction clean-up using mixed mode sorbents. The bromine derivatization efficiency of acrylamide and its internal standard were improved at an acidic condition. After derivation, the retention capability of acrylamide and its resistance to interference were significantly improved. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) were 1.2 and 4 µg/kg for roasted and instant coffees, while they were 0.24 and 0.8 µg/kg for ready-to-drink coffees. The average recoveries for acrylamide ranged from 99.3 to 102.2% in coffee and its products. All the results showed that the developed method was simple, quick, specific and suitable for screening and determination of acrylamide in batch samples of coffee and its products.

Formation and mitigation of acrylamide in oven baked vegetable fries.

Investigation into oven baked sweet potato and carrot fries at various temperatures and times demonstrated the in situ formation of acrylamide in an exponential manner. High levels of acrylamide were found in these food items: up to 327 µg/kg for sweet potato baked at 190 °C for 14 min, and 99 µg/kg for carrot baked at 190 °C for 13 min. Risk assessment via Margin of Exposures estimation showed that consumption of these fries might pose adverse health effects to consumers from toddlers to adults, especially when the fries were prepared at high temperatures above 175 °C and for a long time. Raw ingredient blanching and immersion in acetic acid prior to preparation have been proven to greatly reduce acrylamide formation, up to 99%. It is recommendable to apply these techniques either at industrial or domestic cooking scales to ensure minimal health risk from dietary exposure to acrylamide.

Screening of Acrylamide of Par-Fried Frozen French Fries Using Portable FT-IR Spectroscopy.

Current assays for acrylamide screening rely heavily on LC-MS/MS or GC-MS, techniques that are not suitable to support point of manufacturing verification because it can take several weeks to receive results from a laboratory. A portable sensor that can detect acrylamide levels in real-time would enable in-house testing to safeguard both the safety of the consumer and the economic security of the agricultural supplier. Our objective was to develop a rapid, accurate, and real-time screening technique to detect the acrylamide content in par-fried frozen French fries based on a portable infrared device. Par-fried French fries (n = 70) were manufactured at times ranging from 1 to 5.5 min at 180 °C to yield a wide range of acrylamide levels. Spectra of samples were collected using a portable FT-IR device operating from 4000 to 700 cm-1. Acrylamide was extracted using QuEChERS and quantified using uHPLC-MS/MS. Predictive algorithms were generated using partial least squares regression (PLSR). Acrylamide levels in French fries ranged from 52.0 to 812.8 µg/kg. The best performance of the prediction algorithms required transformation of the acrylamide levels using a logarithm function with models giving a coefficient of correlation (Rcv) of 0.93 and RPD as 3.8, which means the mid-IR model can be used for process control applications. Our data corroborate the potential of portable infrared devices for acrylamide screening of high-risk foods.

Safest Roasting Times of Coffee To Reduce Carcinogenicity.

ABSTRACT: Roasting coffee results in not only the creation of carcinogens such as acrylamide, furan, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons but also the elimination of carcinogens in raw coffee beans, such as endotoxins, preservatives, or pesticides, by burning off. However, it has not been determined whether the concentrations of these carcinogens are sufficient to make either light or dark roast coffee more carcinogenic in a living organism. An Ames test was conducted on light, medium, and dark roast coffee from three origins. We found that lighter roast coffee shows higher mutagenicity, which is reduced to the control level in dark roast coffee varieties, indicating that the roasting process is not increasing mutagenic potential but is beneficial to eliminating the existing carcinogens in raw coffee beans. This result suggests that dark roast coffee is safer and promotes further studies of the various carcinogens in raw coffee that have been burned off.

Towards a consensus LC-MS/MS method for the determination of acrylamide in food that prevents overestimation due to interferences.

Acrylamide is prone to misquantification, and critical steps in the analytical procedures need to be identified and controlled to ensure a reliable determination. Four methods were considered to illustrate misquantification issues with acrylamide. For two methods varying by the extent of their sample preparations, cases of overestimation in cocoa samples reaching up to a 20-fold factor are shown. A second example, applied to a variety of food products, includes two other methods varying by their chromatographic conditions. As a follow up of a study conducted in 2020 about the identification of N-acetyl-ß-alanine as an interference of acrylamide in coffee, the extent of this interference was evaluated in a selection of coffee samples, cereal-based products and baby foods. The ultimate objective of this manuscript was to resolve such cases of misquantification and validate a wide scope and robust method allowing an interference free acrylamide analysis. To do so, an extraction procedure based on the EN 16618:2015 standard with water extraction and two consecutive solid phase extraction (SPE) steps was applied with modified liquid chromatographic conditions. The method was validated in coffee, cereals, baby foods, cocoa and pet foods with excellent performance in terms of recovery (97-108%) and precision (RSDr and RSDiR <12 %). The breath of scope was further proved through trueness determination in quality control materials and reference materials including French fries, potato crisps, vegetable crisps, instant coffee, infant food and biscuit (cookie), with trueness values found within a 94-107% range.

Investigation of thermal contaminants in coffee beans induced by roasting: A kinetic modeling approach.

The roasting-induced formation of thermal contaminants in coffee beans, including 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), acrylamide (AA), furan (F), 2-methyl furan (2-MF), and 3-methyl furan (3-MF), was investigated using a kinetic modeling approach. Results showed that AA and 5-HMF formation and elimination occur simultaneously in coffee beans during roasting and that the related reactions follow first-order reaction kinetics. The concentrations of F, 2-MF, and 3-MF increased throughout the roasting experiment, and variations in the concentrations of these compounds during roasting could be best described by empirical, logistic model. The increase in weight loss and decrease in moisture content of the beans during roasting also displayed first-order reaction kinetics. High coefficients of determination (R2 > 0.981) were observed for all fitted models, and the reaction rate constants of all models followed the Arrhenius law.

Inhibitory effect of polysaccharides on acrylamide formation in chemical and food model systems.

The inhibitory effect of three polysaccharides (alginate, pectin and chitosan) on acrylamide formation was investigated in chemical and fried potato food model systems, under two heating regimes (heating block and microwave). In the chemical system, acrylamide formation followed a second order reaction kinetic behaviour. Activation energies (Ea) were 17.85 and 110.78 kJ/mol for conventional and microwave heating respectively. Acrylamide content was highest at 180 °C after 60 min conventional heating (27.88 ng/ml) and 3.5 fold higher after microwave heating for 60 s (800 W, 98.02 ng/ml). Alginate (0.3% w/v) and pectin (0.2% w/v) solutions efficiently inhibited acrylamide formation by 65% and 56% respectively under conventional heating, and 36% and 30% respectively under microwave heating. Coating potatoes with alginate, pectin and chitosan (1% w/v) prior to frying dramatically inhibited acrylamide formation by 54%, 51% and 41% respectively. However only alginate and pectin slightly reduced acrylamide by 5% in the microwave.

Chemical constituents of fresh-cut potato as affected by cultivar, age, storage, and cooking.

Certain changes in phenolics and sugars can occur during the storage of potatoes, where particularly amounts of sugars represent the critical factor as they are involved in potentially harmful acrylamide (AA) formation during frying. This research investigates the impact of cultivars (Birgit and Lady Claire), tuber's age (1, 5, and 9 months), and storage duration (1, 5, and 8 days at 10 °C) on the content of phenolics and sugars in raw, boiled, and fried fresh-cut potato (FCP). The influence of these factors on the formation of AA in fried FCP was also assessed. Significant differences in phenolics and sugars were observed between cultivars (cv. Birgit contained 5.77 mg of phenolics 100 g-1 of dry weight (DW) and 1.75 g of sugars 100 g-1 DW, while cv. Lady Claire contained 10.13 mg of phenolics 100 g-1 DW and 0.65 g of sugars 100 g-1 DW). The content of phenolics significantly decreased, while sugars increased during tubers' aging. FCP storage time had no significant influence on the content of phenolics and sugars. The phenolics and sugars were the highest in the raw samples and the lowest in the boiled ones. Although the AA level in fried samples was significantly influenced by cultivar (Birgit > Lady Claire) and it increased with FCP storage time, it was below European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) regulation's approved maximum value (750 µg kg-1 FW) in both cultivars. Therefore, cvs. Birgit and Lady Claire could be considered as promising FCP cultivars and for frying purposes. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The results of this research reveal that quantitative changes of chemical constituents occurring during storage and cooking of fresh-cut slices of potato cultivars Birgit and Lady Claire are not a concern. This is of particular importance to fresh-cut producers and customers. Phenolics were reduced during storage, but they were still present in all cooked samples independently of the cooking method. The analysis of sugars showed that tubers as old as 9 months could be used for fresh-cut potato processing, providing safe frying without critical levels of acrylamide.

Kinetic modelling of acrylamide formation during the frying of potato chips.

The effect of potato tuber composition, frying time and temperature on acrylamide formation in potato chips was investigated and a mathematical model of the kinetics of acrylamide formation is provided. Moisture-temperature-time profiles were obtained for potato slices during frying to enable the determination of the 'effective' reaction time by identifying the critical moisture content (6% dwb) for acrylamide formation to commence and using dehydration curves to calculate subsequent frying time to finished product moisture content. The chemical kinetic model conformed to the following rate equation over a one hundred-fold range of acrylamide concentrations: d[acryl]dt=k1glucoseasn+k6[fructose][asn][TAA] where [TAA] represents total amino acid concentration. The timescale of the frying process meant that the chemical reactions were all in their initial rate phase. Kinetic parameters confirm that the fructose-dependent reaction (caramelization) contributes twice as much acrylamide as the reaction of glucose (Maillard reaction).

Progress on reducing acrylamide levels in potato crisps in Europe, 2002 to 2019.

European Snacks Association (ESA) data on acrylamide in potato crisps from 2002 to 2019 (99704 observations) were analysed. Acrylamide levels have plateaued since 2011, although the lowest mean so far was attained in 2018 at 353 ± 2.7 ng g-1: a 54% reduction since 2002. The 85th, 90th and 95th quantiles did show evidence of continued downward progress, the 90th quantile being lower than the 750 ng g-1 European Benchmark Level from 2017 to 2019. A smaller dataset from the European Food Safety Authority (2124 observations) for 2011-2018 was also analysed. The yearly means were higher than those of the ESA data but showed a fall in average acrylamide from 715 ± 40.5 ng g-1 in 2015 to 505 ± 28.5 ng g-1 in 2018, as well as steep falls in the 85th, 90th and 95th quantiles. Nevertheless, even the 85th quantile remained above the 750 ng g-1 Benchmark Level. The ESA data showed a reduction in the proportion of samples with acrylamide exceeding 750 ng g-1, from over 40% in 2002 to 7.75% in 2019. Seasonality was evident, with highest acrylamide levels from November to May. Crisp type had little effect except that thicker types had a higher proportion of samples containing >750 ng g-1 acrylamide. Analysis of the region of origin in Europe of the final product revealed improvements in the east and north. Geographical factors combined with seasonality continued to be problematic but was also an aspect in which progress was most evident. The findings show that improvements have been made in reducing the number of samples with very high levels of acrylamide, but do not suggest that mean acrylamide levels could be reduced substantially below where they have been since 2011, or that levels could be kept consistently below the current Benchmark Level.

Effects of germination and roasting on physicochemical and sensory characteristics of brown rice for tea infusion.

Germinated brown rice was roasted for the preparation of tea. The germination induced substantial increases in reducing sugars (from 3224.06 to 5028.80 mg/100 g), free amino acids (from 62.51 to 165.07 mg/100 g), volatile compounds, and phenolics (10.06 to 14.27 mg GAE/100 g). Roasting decreased the residual contents of free amino acids and reducing sugars, but produced the volatiles and phenolics. Browning index was slightly decreased by the germination (from 22.69 to 20.13), but significantly increased by the subsequent roasting. The germinated BR (GBR) was more susceptible to roasting than native BR. Acrylamide content in the roasted GBR was significantly lower than that in the roasted BR, because of the lower asparagine content in GBR. Sensory evaluation revealed that a mild roasting for 5 min at 230 °C after germination for 2 days was appropriate to produce a brown rice tea.

The effect of borage, ginger and fennel extracts on acrylamide formation in French fries in deep and electric air frying.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of three Lebanese wild plant extracts on acrylamide (AA) content in French fries, and to investigate the impact of air frying (AF) and deep frying (DF) techniques against AA formation. HPLC showed higher level of AA in DF (1384.79 ng/g) than in AF (163.1 ng/g). Indeed, the plant extracts of ginger, borage and fennel succeeded to decrease AA (59.67, 67.99, and 73.36% in (AF) and 21.91, 66.29 and 29.15% in (DF) respectively)in both fryers. Accordingly, borage fennel and ginger with their high scavenging activity (86.09%, 89.11% 93.67% respectively) and total phenolic contents (298.61, 117.79 and 97.36 of GAE respectively) can act as healthy beneficial pre-treatment, overall reducing AA in potato fries particularly in AF. This study was the first to reveal the importance of using plant extract in reducing AA in potato fries, a staple Lebanese food.