Abstract
Since many years, acrylamide (AA) is a well-known toxicologically relevant processing contaminant (“food-borne toxicant”). However, only during the recent years, high levels of acrylamide have been reported in vegetable chips. In the present study, AA was quantitated via a modified derivatization procedure with 2-mercaptobenzoic acid based on stable isotope dilution analysis and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Extraction with a modified QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, efficient, rugged, safe) method, defatting with n-hexane, and a solid phase extraction clean-up with strong cation-exchange material were performed prior to the derivatization step. Limits of detection and quantitation (LoD and LoQ) were 12 and 41 µg of AA/kg of vegetable chips (estimated via signal-to-noise ratios of 3:1 and 10:1, respectively), and thus below the LoQ of 50 µg/kg requested by the European Food Safety Authority. Recovery rates between 92 and 101% at four spiking levels with a good precision expressed as a relative standard deviation < 7% were determined. With this method at hand, a survey of the current AA amounts in 38 vegetable chips from the worldwide market was performed, showing a remarkable variability between the different vegetables, but also between different products of the same vegetable. Thereby, the AA amounts ranged between 77.3 and 3090 µg/kg, with an average of 954 µg/kg which was distinctly higher in comparison to commercially available potato chips also analyzed in the present study (12 samples, range: 117–832 µg/kg, average: 449 µg/kg). While for sweet potato and parsnip relatively low AA amounts were found, beetroot and carrot showed rather high contents.
Highlights
The “food-borne toxicant” acrylamide (AA) is a processing contaminant present in several heat-processed foods like potato chips, French fries, crispbread, and breakfast cereals [1,2,3]
The original method according to Jezussek and Schieberle [29] based on an AA derivatization with 2-mercaptobenzoic acid and Stable isotope dilution analysis (SIDA) via Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–mass spectrometry (MS)) was optimized for a reliable quantitation of AA in vegetable chips
The derivatization of AA with 2-mercaptobenzoic acid into a stable thioether prior to analysis based on SIDA and LC–MS was shown as a reliable and sensitive method for AA quantitation in vegetable chips
Summary
The “food-borne toxicant” acrylamide (AA) is a processing contaminant present in several heat-processed foods like potato chips, French fries, crispbread, and breakfast cereals [1,2,3]. AA was found to cause neurotoxic and carcinogenic effects in animals [9, 10] and a possible relation between dietary intake of AA and the risk of colorectal cancer in humans was presumed [11]. On the basis of monitoring data from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) collected during 2007 and 2008, the European Commission (EC) set indicative values for eight food product categories known to contain AA, for example, 1000 μg of AA/kg for potato chips [12]. In 2015, EFSA published a scientific opinion, indicating AA in food may increase the risk of cancer for humans [13]. The EC set benchmark levels for eight food categories in Regulation (EC) No 2017/2158 (enforced April 11th, 2018), for example, 500 μg of AA/kg for French fries and 750 μg of AA/kg for potato chips [14]. Therein, measures for the reduction of AA levels for the food industry and recommendations
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