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Analytical methodology and survey results for acrylamide in foods

Updated April 26, 2002

Findings of a specific haemoglobin adduct of acrylamide in human subjects, later also in rats fed with fried feed, lead scientists at the University of Stockholm to the discovery that acrylamide can be formed in foods during cooking. At a later stage they also demonstrated high acrylamide levels in some foodstuffs that were heated in laboratory experiments.

Based of this information the SwedishNational Food Administration decided to try to develop a new analytical procedure for acrylamide detection in foods. One important purpose was to enable verification of the presence of acrylamide in food by using alternative methodology, i.e. to confirm the identity of acrylamide and to show that it was not formed as an artefact during the analytical procedure. Moreover, there was a need for a simple and fast method that could be used for extensive investigations of acrylamide in a wide range of foods.

The development work,started in January 2002 and has resulted in a new and significantly improved analytical method. The procedure is presently under validation and accreditation has been requested from the national accreditation authority SWEDAC. The method utilizes liquid chromatography coupled to two-stage mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS). This modern state-of-the-art technology is considered highly reliable for chemical structure identification. Quantification is aided by spiking each sample prior to extraction with an internal standard consisting of an acrylamide molecule where three of the hydrogen atoms have been substituted by the isotope deuterium.

As a complement to the research on acrylamide formation at the University of Stockholm, the National Food Administration has started a broad survey of acrylamide levels in common foods. In order to speed up the investigations, a number of samples were initially sent to a private laboratory (AnalyCen AB, Lidköping, Sweden), also engaged by the University of Stockholm for acrylamide analysis. The analytical method employed was a modification of a procedure originally developed for analysis of acrylamide in water. The major disadvantages compared to the new method include a lower sample throughput and the fact that it is based on indirect detection of acrylamide through volatile derivative.

Up to this date more than a hundred food samples have been collected by the National Food Administration and analysed for acrylamide. No levels could be detected in any of the raw foodstuffs or foods cooked by boiling investigated so far (potato, rice, pasta, flour and meat). A summary of the other results is given in Table 1. Various fried and oven-cooked foods based on meats and flour respectively, corn crisps, muesli, as well as some of the breakfast cereals and crisp breads, were in the concentration interval up to 100 mg/kg. French fries and other fried, deep fried or oven-baked potato products, together with some crisp breads, biscuits, crackers and breakfast cereals, were in the interval 100-1000 mg/kg. About half of the potato crisp samples were also in this group while the levels above 1000 mg/kg were detected in the remaining half.

Individual results for all tested samples are given in Table 2 (link at the bottom of this page). It must be emphasized that the concentration figures in most cases refers only to one single randomly selected package of each specific product. The uncertainty intervals given in the table are statistical estimations of the random errors of the analytical procedure only. Moreover the choice of products within each group is far from complete.

Consequently we would like to stress that knowledge that could provide guidance in consumers' choice between different products and brands within a certain food type is still lacking.

 The primary objectives so far have been to provide concentration data for intake estimations of acrylamide from foods and to identify the most important food types. The investigation is in full progress and more data will be published when available.

We are convinced that information now presented by the University of Stockholm and the Swedish National Food Administration will initiate considerable research and investigation activities at official institutions and food industries world-wide. Further studies on the occurrence and formation of acrylamide in foods will hopefully lead to modifications of production methods and raw materials that will eliminate or limit the formation of acrylamide in foods.

New results added April 26, 2002. These results are from new samples of some of the products that in the earlier material showed a relative high concentration of acrylamide, thereby increasing the median figures.

Table 2 - Individual results for all tested samples 

Page maintained by: Karl-Erik Hellenäs, +46 18 17 57 08, and Johan Rosén, +46  18 17 57 66, The National Foood Administration, 
Page updated: 2002-04-26