Acrylamide in Bakery Products: A Review on Health Risks, Legal Regulations and Strategies to Reduce Its Formation

Cristina Sarion, Georgiana Gabriela Codină and Adriana Dabija
Additional contact information
Cristina Sarion: Faculty of Food Engineering, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania
Georgiana Gabriela Codină: Faculty of Food Engineering, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania
Adriana Dabija: Faculty of Food Engineering, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, 720229 Suceava, Romania

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-23

Abstract: Acrylamide is a contaminant as defined in Council Regulation (EEC) No 315/93 and as such, it is considered a chemical hazard in the food chain. The toxicity of acrylamide has been acknowledged since 2002, among its toxicological effects on humans being neurotoxicity, genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, and reproductive toxicity. Acrylamide has been classified as carcinogenic in the 2A group, with human exposure leading to progressive degeneration of the peripheral and central nervous systems characterized by cognitive and motor abnormalities. Bakery products (bread, crispbread, cakes, batter, breakfast cereals, biscuits, pies, etc.) are some of the major sources of dietary acrylamide. The review focuses on the levels of acrylamide in foods products, in particular bakery ones, and the risk that resulting dietary intake of acrylamide has on human health. The evolving legislative situation regarding the acrylamide content from foodstuffs, especially bakery ones, in the European Union is discussed underlining different measures that food producers must take in order to comply with the current regulations regarding the acrylamide levels in their products. Different approaches to reduce the acrylamide level in bakery products such as the use of asparginase, calcium salts, antioxidants, acids and their salts, etc., are described in detail.

Keywords: acrylamide; toxicity; public health; legal regulations; reduction method; bakery products (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4332/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4332/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:8:p:4332-:d:539239

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().