Acrylamide mitigation in Californian-style olives after thermal and baking treatments

Abstract

Californian-style olives elaboration can generate a carcinogenic compound known as acrylamide. This study assesses acrylamide formation after its elaboration and cooking in the "Hojiblanca" variety, submitted to mitigation strategies. Acrylamide levels in traditional elaboration (194.9–561.6 ng∙g−1) were higher compared with those obtained post-industrial mitigation strategies (102.9–440.3 ng∙g−1), after applying a phenol addition (72.0–317.9 ng∙g−1) and, finally, after performing mitigation strategies along with phenol addition (50.4–110.5 ng∙g−1). Type of packaging contributed to mitigating acrylamide formation, with glass containers providing better caring of the food matrix (showing an acrylamide decrease of 13 %). The evolution of acrylamide after the different baking treatments showed that this toxic compound becomes higher with temperature, finally stabilizing during baking treatments with temperatures from 195 °C to 235 °C (T3-T5). These analyses were complemented with sensory analysis, finding a positive correlation (R2 = 0.696−0.913) when represented versus cooking defect. To sum up, the study showed that the acrylamide saturation curve can be influenced by the mitigation strategies applied. It can be said that the more effectively the mitigation measures are performed, the less pronounced the acrylamide saturation curve will be. This research enhances the importance of designing strategies to decrease undesirable compounds synthetized during food processing.