Overcooked Toast and Potatoes are “Potential Cancer Risk”, Say UK’s FSA

24 Jan 2017 --- The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has launched a campaign to warn consumers of the dangers of eating acrylamide, a carcinogen that is caused by over-cooking starchy foods such as bread and potatoes.

Acrylamide is created when such foods are cooked for long periods at high temperatures, such as when baking, frying, grilling, toasting and roasting.

The FSA’s campaign, ‘Go for Gold’, offers advice on minimizing levels of the potentially harmful chemical in home cooking. They hope the campaign helps to empower people to make small changes to how they cook and help minimize acrylamide consumption in the home.

Highlighting the color that such foods should be after cooking, The “Go for Gold” campaign suggests that as a general rule of thumb, consumers should aim for a golden yellow color or lighter when frying, baking, toasting or roasting starchy foods like potatoes, root vegetables, and bread.

The FDA state that the campaign ties in with a general scientific consensus that acrylamide has the potential to cause cancer in humans. Additionally, findings from its Total Diet Study confirm that people in the UK currently consume higher levels of the chemical than is desirable and that the majority of people are not aware that acrylamide exists.

Steve Wearne, Director of Policy at the Food Standards Agency, said, “Our research indicates that the majority of people are not aware that acrylamide exists, or that they might be able to reduce their personal intake.”

“We want our “Go for Gold” campaign to highlight the issue so that consumers know how to make the small changes that may reduce their acrylamide consumption whilst still eating plenty of starchy carbohydrates and vegetables as recommended in government healthy eating advice.”

“Although there is more to know about the true extent of the acrylamide risk, there is an important job for Government, industry, and others to do to help reduce acrylamide intake. This campaign is part of the FSA's wider work to reduce the level of acrylamide that people consume.”

Wearne also highlights that burnt toast and potatoes aren’t the only things hazardous to health, and that acrylamide can be found in other foods provided by the food industry such as potato chips and other foods cooked at high temperatures.

"Acrylamide tends to occur in starchy foods during high-temperature cooking, including frying, baking, toasting, grilling and roasting. So processed foods which contain acrylamide include crisps, biscuits, cereals and a variety of other foods," A spokesperson for the FSA told NutritionInsight.

They continued “The FSA has taken a lead in discussions in Europe to find the best solution to support food businesses to reduce acrylamide including monitoring various retail foods to see how successful efforts to reduce acrylamide are."

"The food industry has for some time maintained a ‘toolbox’ on acrylamide to support acrylamide reduction and is currently developing sector codes of practice that will be embedded throughout the food chain promoting best practice. We are working with the hospitality and food service sector to support the development of some simple, supporting guidance."

However, not everyone is on board with the consensus that acrylamide causes cancer. Cancer Research UK have said that the link has not been not proven in humans, and David Spiegelhalter, professor for the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University, said that the advice given by the FSA may not be appropriate.

“Acrylamide can be, in large doses, a very nasty substance,” Spiegelhalter explained.

“Very high doses have been shown to increase the risk of mice getting cancer. The IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) considers it a ‘probable human carcinogen’, putting it in the same category as many chemicals, red meat, being a hairdresser and shift-work.”

“However, adults with the highest consumption of acrylamide could consume 160 times as much and still only be at a level that toxicologists think unlikely to cause increased tumors in mice,” Spiegelhalter added.

“The FSA provide no estimate of the current harm caused by acrylamide, nor the benefit from any reduction due to people following their advice,” he said, adding, “To be honest, I am not convinced it is appropriate to launch a public campaign on this basis.”

by Hannah Gardiner