Food Process Engineering

BTE 4220
Assignment 2
Semester 2 2011/2012
April 29, 2012

Journal review
Journal title
Technological Strategies to Reduce Acrylamide Levels
in Heated Foods
Monica Anese Michele Suman M. Cristina Nicoli
Published: 18th July 2009
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Group members:
Abu Zafar M Shafi

0918083

Esam Abdo Al Edresi 0722363

Acrylamide is a suspected carcinogenic and toxic molecule, whose presence in foods was first
detected in 2002. A wide range of cooked foods contain acrylamide at levels ranging from a few
ppb to the excess of 1000 ppb. This includes potato chips, French fries, roasted coffee, and
bakery products, such as bread, crisp bread, biscuits, crackers, and breakfast cereals. Maillardtype reactions, in the presence of asparagine, have proven to be a major reaction pathway of
acrylamide formation. As a consequence, acrylamide formation is closely related to the
development of the desired sensory properties (color, flavor, and texture) of heated foods, which
are a result of the development of the Maillard reaction products. According to one of the most
realistic mechanisms, the a-amino group of a free asparagine reacts with a carbonyl source,
forming a Schiff base . Under heat, the Schiff base decarboxylates, forming a product that can
hydrolyze to form 3-aminopropionamide, which can further degrade via the elimination of
ammonia to form acrylamide, or decompose directly to form acrylamide via elimination of
animine. For instance, acrylamide formation is favored by a high heating temperature and time,
as well as pH values, a relatively low water content and activity. It must be pointed out that some
of these factors (e.g., water content and its physical state) may change as a consequence of the
heat treatment, thus influencing the rate of acrylamide formation.

Mitigation Interventions
Mitigation interventions, aimed to keep as low as possible acrylamide formation during the
heating process and removal intervention, aimed to move away the already formed acrylamide
from the finished product.

Mitigation Processes
Fermentation
Fermentation of dough or potatoes allows for the kinetic control of the rate of acrylamide
formation by means of precursor (reducing sugars or asparagine) consumption as well as pH
reduction. Both laboratory and pilot-scale experiments demonstrated that reduction of
acrylamide content in cereal products can be achieved by prolonged fermentation as a
consequence of extensive asparagines utilization by yeast. Moreover, trials carried out under
pilot plant conditions showed that a prolongation of the fermentation time to at least 1 h is
sufficient foracrylamide reduction in industrial bread production, whereas fermentation times
exceeding 3 h are unsuitable due to the degradation of the gluten network and subsequent
flattening of the leavened products . The addition of low-gassing yeast resulted effective in
mitigating acrylamide content in leavened bakery products. In fact, higher amounts of yeast can
be used to allow a greater decomposition of asparagine, while causing the same overall gas
generation.

Use of the asparaginase

Asparaginase is claimed to reduce acrylamide levels by up to 90% through the conversion of
asparagine into aspartic acid without altering the appearance or taste of the final product.The
effectiveness of asparaginase in reducing acrylamide is testified by a number of patent

applications concerning different processed foods, such as snack foods, chips, dough foods, etc.
Studies have shown that asparaginase effectiveness is promoted by a high
decompartmentalization of the food, which favors the contact between the enzyme and the food
substrate.
Although the asparaginase pretreatment is one of the most promising tools for acrylamide
mitigation at present, due to the numerousness and complexity of the influencing variables on
enzymatic activity, it requires an optimization of the processing parameters as well as an
introduction of changes to the process. Indeed, factors other than food decompartmentalization,
such as incubation time and temperature, processing time and temperature, pH, and water
content, may affect the enzymatic activity. In this regard, predictive models would represent a
time and cost saving tool for finding the most suitable processing conditions for the enzymatic
activity to be used in already set industrial processes. The predictive models are expected to
estimate the behavior of the enzyme in a considered system and to manage the industrial process
to optimize the role of the variables involved with regard to acrylamide formation.

Heating and water activity

Strictly related to heating temperature and time, the water content of the food plays a crucial role
in acrylamide generation. As is known, water may influence the reactivity of chemical
constituents (e.g., acrylamide precursors) of a food matrix as well as possible phase transitions.
In addition, water content and activity may change during heating, thus influencing the rate of
acrylamide formation. It has been demonstrated that, as long as the water evaporates (the
temperature does not exceed 100_C) no acrylamide is detected in the food. On the contrary, the
lower the moisture in the product, the more acrylamide is formed at a given temperature.
Keeping the relative humidity high during baking proved to be effective in reducing acrylamide
levels in bakery products. This can be achieved not only by reducing the temperature but also by
injecting steam during baking. As far as the temperature decrease approach is concerned, the
injection of steam can produce bread with an acceptable crust color.It must be noted that this
approach is suitable for foods with relatively high residual moisture, whereas for most
cereal derivatives lower moisture contents are required for product stability and acceptability.

Adoption of Nonconventional Processes

Compared to traditional frying at atmospheric pressure and 165_C, vacuum frying at 1.33 kPa
and 118 degree C reduced acrylamide concentration in potato chips up to 95%, without causing
significant changes in color and texture attributes.
A reduction of the overall thermal effect and a consequent inhibition of acrylamide formation in
bakery products can be achieved by means of combinations of conventional and dielectric
heating . As is known, during the baking process, the moisture content of cereal derivatives has
to be reduced below 35% to improve shelf life. However, when the moisture content falls,
considerable time is needed to bake the center because of the low rates of heat transfer caused by
the low thermal conductivity of the dry food . As a consequence, the great thermal input is
responsible for causing both excessive surface browning and high acrylamide contents. It has
been demonstrated that by applying radiofrequency heating to samples coming from a
conventional (air-circulating) oven with fairly high moisture contents (around 10%), it is
possible to obtain dry products with acrylamide concentrations up to 50% lower than the
corresponding products baked by conventional heating only.

Formulation Changes

As formulation substantially contributes to acrylamide formation, its change is regarded as a

realistic mitigation strategy. A change in formulation can be achieved by (a) substituting highly
reactive precursors with others which are less prone to react to form acrylamide, or (b) adding
ingredients which inhibit the reaction of acrylamide formation or favor its elimination.

Ingredient Substitution
The total or partial replacement of reducing sugars (namely fructose and glucose) with sucrose
resulted in significant reduction in acrylamide in bakery products. The lack of reducing sugars,
however, affects the development of the brown color via Maillard reaction. As this is a desired
character in most bakery products, substitution of reducing sugars may represent a feasible way
of reducing acrylamide for light-colored products only. It has been demonstrated that ammonium
carbonate or bicarbonate, which is used to raise doughs, greatly increases acrylamide formation.
Such an effect can be explained by both a pH increase, responsible for an acceleration of the
reaction between asparagine and the reducing sugar, and an enhancing effect of ammonium on

acrylamide formation. Replacement of ammonium carbonate or bicarbonate with the

corresponding sodium salt caused an acrylamide reduction of up to 70%.

Ingredient Addition
The potential of several ingredients in reducing acrylamide levels without affecting the sensory
properties of foods has been studied. Among these are mono- or divalent cations. These cations
seem to prevent the formation of the Schiff base of asparagine, which, as already mentioned, is
the key intermediate leading to acrylamide, or to exhibit catalytic effects on acrylamide
polymerization reaction. Studies on the effect of NaCl in both model and food (crackers, wheat
bread) systems have shown that relatively low Na concentrations (12% w/w) decreased
acrylamide formation, whereas at higher levels of salt the toxic molecule increased.

Removal Strategy
The objective is not to reduce acrylamide formation during food processing, but to physically
remove the molecule after the heat process has been completed. By virtue of its low molecular
weight (71 Da), acrylamide could be removed from foods by exploiting its physical and chemical
properties.
Potato chips, introduced in an apparatus where a vacuum of 1.33 Pa was applied for 1 h at 85
degree C, had a reduced level of acrylamide as compared to those prior to the treatment.
As far as acrylamide removal is concerned, although it represents a very promising strategy to be
applied to finished products, further research is needed to verify its exploitability on different
food matrices and impact on the sensory properties of foods.