Acrylamide in Popular West African Foods

Acrylamide (AA) is a toxic compound, present in a wide range of heat-processed foods prepared from materials rich in reducing sugar and asparagine. Since the time of discovery of AA in foods, no study has considered the effect of precursors, commonly used methods and temperatures of cooking on the formation of the contaminant in popular West African (WA) foods. Consequently, this study focused on the impact of these parameters on the acrylamide levels in WA foods including akara, bread, buns, chin-chin, doughnut, fish-roll, meat-pie, plantain-chips, puff-puff, and yam-chips. The study evaluated the effect of baking and frying at 150, 180 and 210°C for 5, 10 and 15 mins on the AA levels in the selected WA foods. Potentiometric method based on the use of ammonium ion selective electrode and immobilised acrylamide amidohydrolase was used to test 150 samples of each WA food prepared using the different cooking temperatures. In addition, recognised methods requiring glucose oxidase and asparaginase were used for measuring the amount of precursors including glucose and asparagine in the unprocessed food materials.The relationship between the contaminant and the precursors was then determined through correlation and regression analysis of the data obtained. Independent T-test of equality of sample means at α=0.05 showed no statistical significant difference (p ˃ 0.05) in the AA produced by using baking and frying at the same temperature. However, ANOVA for the AA concentrations indicated that increasing baking and frying temperatures significantly affected the amount of the process contaminants i.e. (p < 0.05). Highest readings for the contaminant was noted for WA foods processed for longer times at 210°C, while the lowest measurements were obtained for those processed for 5mins at 150°C. The lowest amounts of acrylamide (25±7 μg/kg) was detected in buns baked at 150°C, while the highest levels of the contaminant (703±27 and 706±13 μg/kg) were noticed in yam and plantain chips fried at 210°C. Overall, a significant positive relationship (p < 0.01) was observed between AA present in the food products and the precursors measured in the food materials. The strongest and weakest determination coefficients (r2) of 0.88 and 0.30 were observed for WA plantain-chips and bread respectively. In conclusion, the temperature of cooking, asparagine and glucose levels in WA food materials are major determinants of the AA formed in the selected WA food products

An awareness survey on the presence and implications of acrylamide in West African foods and the extent of consumption of such foods

Acrylamide is a neurotoxic, genotoxic and potentially carcinogenic compound, found in a wide range of foods, particularly heat-treated carbohydrate-rich foods. Many such foods and food products of West African origin are very popular within the community and beyond but, there is hardly any data on the awareness of the presence and the potential adverse health effects of acrylamide in foods

Acrylamide in West African Foods; an Awareness and Consumption survey

Acrylamide is a probable carcinogen, thus a food safety hazard. Following its discovery in foods in 2002 by the Swedish National Food Administration (SNFA), research on dietary acrylamide has increased exponentially but with little focus on heat-processed carbohydrate-rich West African (WA) foods. Thus this research aimed to investigate the extent of awareness of the acrylamide and the degree of consumption of these foods by West Africans through, an online survey. There were 1103 responses, 89.5% and 10.5% from seven West African countries and the United Kingdom (UK), respectively. 98.0% of the respondents were unaware of the occurrence of acrylamide and 99.6% were unaware of its toxicity. 81.0% of all the participants consume baked and fried carbohydrate-rich WA foods weekly. Chi square test showed no significant difference between the awareness of acrylamide and its toxicity, with p-value (0.108)>0.05