FRENCH-fries lovers, beware. Potato chips, French fries, crackers, and similar foods cooked at very high temperatures have been found tocontain high concentrations of a carcinogenic chemical compound.
Acrylamide, a colorless solid compound known to cause damage to the human nervous system, forms as a result of still unknown chemical reactions during high-temperature baking or frying when asparagine, an amino acid, reacts with reducing sugars or carbonyl. The carcinogenic compound is normally used in papermaking, ore processing, and water purifying.
The cooking and re-cooking of fried foods in the same frying pan or broiler have been considered by scientists to be the possible culprits. Even a carefully washed iron skillet can still contain submerged carcinogens collected from previous use, according to nutritionists and dieticians.
“Using cooking oil for days or even weeks on end may cause it to turn rancid, releasing carcinogenic chemicals,” Evelyn Ladines, chair of the Department of Food Technology of the College of Education, told the Varsitarian.
According to laboratory tests conducted by the US Center for Science in the Public Interest, a one-ounce serving of Pringles Potato Crisps contains 208 times more acrylamide than the one microgram per day recommended maximum intake of the chemical in water by the World Health Organization (WHO), while a large order of McDonald’s French fries contains 600 times more acrylamide than recommended.
A study conducted by Dieter Arnold of the Berlin Center for Surveillance and Health Evaluation of Environmental Chemicals in 2002 concluded that people consume about 0.3 to 0.8 micrograms of acrylamide per kilogram of body weight daily.
As a result of this study, WHO held an emergency consultation in June 2002 in Sweden to discuss the health implications of acrylamide and to recommend further studies on its risks. Consumers are advised to avoid excessive cooking of food, eat a balanced diet, and investigate potential methods of reducing the levels of acrylamide in food. Celina Ann M. Tobias
