Acrylamide, cooked Carbohydrate, and Cancer
 

By CLARE NULLIS, Associated Press


GENEVA (June 28, 2002 2:26 p.m. EDT) - Health experts have a "major concern" that a substance in certain high-carbohydrate foods - such as french fries and potato chips - may cause cancer, they said Thursday after a three-day U.N.-sponsored conference on the subject.

To the relief of the snack and fast-food industry, however, the experts did not issue guidelines warning consumers against eating foods with the potentially cancer-causing substance, acrylamide. Instead, they said further study is necessary to determine the extent of the risk - and how to reduce it.

"It is a matter of high concern and we need to do research quite urgently in order to be able to reduce the levels of acrylamide in food," said Dieter Arnold, a scientist with Germany's Federal Institute of Health Protection for Consumers, who chaired the session.

The meeting was convened following a study by Sweden's National Food Administration this year that found high levels of acrylamide in french fries, some brands of potato chips, some types of breakfast cereal and crispbread and some types of bread fried or baked at high temperatures.

Boiled foods did not contain the substance.

The findings of the Swedish study had been greeted with some skepticism - not least because they were announced at a government news conference rather than subject to peer review in a scientific publication. After the Swedish findings were announced, studies in Norway, Britain, Switzerland, Germany and the United States made similar observations.

Still, health experts were concerned enough to call the special meeting in Geneva, which grouped 23 scientists from universities and national food authorities, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization sponsored the conference.

Arnold said there were no plans to single out specific foods that should be avoided.

"On the basis of the information we currently have we cannot give consumers very specific advice such as please avoid eating chips of this and that brand. This will not be done," Arnold said.

"We would rather say that people should eat a balanced and varied diet, which includes plenty of fruits and vegetables and that they should moderate their consumption of fried and fatty foods."

Unexplained differences were found between brands and types of products. For instance, said Arnold, breakfast cereals that were coated in sugar and then processed seemed to contain higher levels of acrylamide.

French fries cooked until they were brown rather than just lightly done also contained higher levels, he said.

There are various risks of cancer in food - for instance, grilling or barbecuing meat can form carcinogenic substances. But what shocked scientists was the high level of acrylamide found.

A survey conducted for the U.S.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest found that the amount of acrylamide in a large order of fast-food french fries was at least 300 times more than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows in a glass of water.

Acrylamide, sometimes used in water-treatment facilities, is a known carcinogen in rats. There is no conclusive proof that it causes cancer in humans.

"Acrylamide is of high concern because it can cause cancer in animals and it's probable that it causes cancer in human beings," said Jorgen Schlundt, coordinator of WHO's food safety division. "The experts were unanimous and clear that this is a major concern."

But he and other health officials stressed that much more research is needed to gain a complete picture. So far 200 analyses have been completed in North America and Europe. The U.N. bodies now want to set up a network to channel data from governments, universities and industry into one central database and to include research from Africa, Asia and South America.

"Whenever analysis has been repeated in different laboratories on the same sample using the same method or different methods, they came to the same results. We unanimously concluded the Swedish results are valid and have to be taken seriously," Arnold said.

In addition to being a carcinogen in rats, acrylamide is also a known neurotoxin, which can cause nerve damage resulting in a weakness in the hands and feet.

Richard Lopachin, a leading researcher on neurotoxicity and acrylamide at New York's Montefiore Medical Center, said more study was needed not just on the carcinogenic but also the neurotoxic effects of acrylamide in the diet.

After the conference ended, industry associations - which feared that WHO might issue specific dietary guidelines - heaved a sigh of relief.

"We are pleased that the experts at the WHO meeting acknowledged that recommendations for any changes to diet or cooking methods should not be made on the basis of what are still very preliminary findings," said Rhona Applebaum of the National Food Processors Association in the United States.

The Snack Food Association - which represents manufacturers of some of the implicated foods - echoed that view.

"We have been cooking food at high temperatures for more than 360,000 years," it said. "The best advice for consumers is to continue to eat a moderate amount of a wide variety of foods, including potato chips."


So there you have it. French fries could not only make you fat but could kill you as well. The head in the sand attitude of the food industry has all the hallmarks of pride before a major major fall.

Asbestos......Tobacco......and now we have had our chips!