Health risk assessment of acrylamide in deep fried starchy foods among students of Kolej Tun Syed Nasir, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Studies found that deep fried starchy foods may contain potential compound to increase cancer risk known as acrylamide. Identification of acrylamide health risk assessment in deep fried starchy food among students in Kolej Tun Syed Nasir, Kuala Lumpur was investigated. A survey was conducted to obtain data on types of deep fried starchy food preferred by the subjects, the food source, intake frequency and also the serving size. Acrylamide in the food sample was quantified using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Based on this study, the estimated acrylamide intake are 0.042 μg/kg/day for fries, 0.012 μg/kg/day for fried banana, 0.129 μg/kg/day for fried sweet potato and 6.101 μg/kg/day for the coated fried chicken, while the acrylamide level in anchovies’ fritter cannot be detected (N/A). Based on the hazard quotient (HQ) calculated, the intake of french fries, fried banana and fried sweet potato do not give a significant health risk (HQ < 1). However, for the coated fried chicken, the HQ value is more than 1 which could possibly cause a health risk. Based on individual excess lifetime cancer risk (IELCR) calculated, the deep fried starchy food intake cancer risk of coated fried chicken is higher (3 × 10-2) compared to fried sweet potato (5.81 × 10-4), french fries (1.89 × 10-4) and anchovies fritter (5.4 × 10-5). The students’ intake of coated fried chicken can give a significant health risk compare to other tested food, however in term of cancer risk, all of the tested food give a high number of probability of increased risk of cancer