why is Acrylamide leaving French Fries?
Acrylamide carcinogen leaving your French fries With all this talk about banning fast food, trans fats, and all that is unhealthy, several French fry and potato chip companies are trying to spare their foods from making the long list of greasy, bad-for-your-health foods. French fries and chips contain a chemical called acrylamide, a known carcinogen. These companies have finally agreed to lower acrylamide levels in their products in order to settle a lawsuit filed by the state of California. So no, these foods do not quite make it onto the nutritional food items menu, but I’ll settle for one less carcinogen in my diet. Several companies — Heinz, Frito-Lay, Kettle Foods and Lance Inc. (which makes Cape Cod chips) — have agreed to lower acrylamide levels in their goods to settle a lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general in 2005.
Although the answer is most likely to be no, that’s exactly what people are getting when they order a ubiquitous side order of fries. The French fry has already received its share of bad press, mainly for questionable nutritional value, but this time around the health threat is downright toxic. The chemical perpetrator in question is acrylamide. Acrylamide is a suspected human carcinogen, severe neurotoxin, and causes irritation of the eyes, skin (is readily absorbed), and respiratory tract. Source: jtbaker.com Worries that Canadians might be inadvertently ingesting too much cancer-causing acrylamide from French fries, potato chips and other processed foods has prompted Health Canada to recommend adding the chemical to the country’s toxic substances list. Acrylamide is an industrial chemical that isn’t naturally found in foods, but is produced accidentally when sugars and other items in potatoes and grains are exposed to high cooking temp
