Estimating the acrylamide exposure of adult individuals from coffee: Turkey

A pilot study of the contribution of energy-dense Caribbean diets to acrylamide exposure with associated health risks for a population of university students in Trinidad and Tobago

Previous studies on university students have indicated a significant decline in the consumption of fruits and vegetables complemented by an increase in energy-dense foods. The food toxicant, acrylamide, typically occurs in carbohydrate-rich, energy-dense foods that have been heated. Hence, this work presents an estimated dietary acrylamide exposure for university students in Trinidad and Tobago. A 2-day dietary recall method was used to obtain the food consumption information from 683 university students of differing sociodemographic backgrounds. The acrylamide exposure was estimated using a deterministic approach. The median acrylamide intake was estimated to be 1.39 µg/kg bw/day. The estimated mean acrylamide dietary intakes for the female and male population were 1.40 and 1.37 µg/kg bw/day, respectively. Coffee was determined to be the major dietary contributor to acrylamide exposure. However, bread was the food item that was most frequently consumed among the students. Using multiple linear regression, a possible correlation was detected between the acrylamide exposure and these variables: dietary habits (mostly eat out; p < 0.05), and Indian ethnicity (p < 0.10). Using the margin of exposure approach, dietary acrylamide exposure was found to be a health concern with regards to neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity. An evaluation of the procedures and results from this pilot study was carried out for the potential of conducting a full-scale research project.

Traditional food processing and Acrylamide formation: A review

Tradition methods that are applied for the processing of food commonly use relatively high temperature and long cooking time for the preparation of foods. This relatively high temperature and long processing time of foods especially in the presence of carbohydrate is highly associated with the formation of acrylamide. Acrylamide is a process contaminant that is highly toxic to humans and remains as a global issue. The occurrence of acrylamide in traditional foods is a major public health problem. Studies that are conducted in different countries indicated that traditionally processed foods are highly linked to the formation of acrylamide. Therefore, understanding the factors influencing acrylamide formation during traditional food processing techniques is crucial for ensuring food safety and minimizing exposure to this harmful chemical compound. Several research reports indicate that proper food processing is the most effective solution to address food safety concerns by identifying foods susceptible to acrylamide formation. This review aims to provide an overview of traditional food processing techniques and their potential contribution to the formation acrylamide and highlight the importance of mitigating its formation in food products. The information obtained in this review may be of great value to future researchers, policymakers, society, and manufacturers.

Dietary acrylamide-linked burden of cancers in four sub-sahara African countries: A review and data synthesis

Acrylamide (AA) is a food processing byproduct that forms at high temperatures and is classified as a probable human carcinogen. Previous studies have linked AA to kidney, uterus, and ovary cancer burdens, but its study in African countries remains underexplored. This study systematically used six recent articles on dietary AA concentration data from scholarly databases using specific search terms. We also collected health metrics secondary data from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation and other sources for the period 2015-2019. We used a Monte-Carlo simulation to integrate the dietary AA exposure, risks, and health metrics to estimate the cancer burdens. The results showed that the modal healthy life years lost ranged from 0.00488 (Ghana) to 0.218 (Ethiopia) per 100,000 population. The median statistic indicated 1.2 and 26.10 healthy life years lost for Ghana and Ethiopia, respectively, due to the three cancer types. The four-country study areas' total disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were 63.7 healthy life-year losses. Despite the limitations of the non-standardized age-related food consumption data and the few inclusive articles, the probabilistic approach may account for the uncertainties and provide valid conclusions.

Dietary Heat-Treatment Contaminants Exposure and Cancer: A Case Study from Turkey

In this study, the 10-year dietary habits of patients diagnosed with cancer (n = 1155) were retrospectively analyzed, and the relationships between dietary (red meat, white meat, fish meat, French fries, bread, instant coffee, ready-to-drink coffee, Turkish coffee, and black tea) heterocyclic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, acrylamide, and N-nitrosamine-based risk scores and cancer types were statistically evaluated. The foods with the highest and lowest mean dietary heat-treatment contaminant risk scores were red meat and ready-to-drink coffee, respectively. There were statistically significant differences in the dietary heat-treatment contamination risk scores based on the cancer patients' demographic characteristics (sex, age, smoking, and body mass index) (p < 0.05). According to the cancer types, the systems with the highest and lowest dietary heat-treatment contaminant risk scores were determined as other (brain, thyroid, lymphatic malignancies, skin, oro- and hypopharynx, and hematology) and the reproductive (breast, uterus, and ovary) system, respectively. The relationship between instant coffee consumption and respiratory system cancer types, the frequency of consumption of French fries and urinary system cancer types and the consumption of meat products and gastrointestinal system cancer types were determined. It is thought that this study contains important findings regarding the relationship between dietary habits and cancer and will be a good source for other studies to be conducted in this context.

Investigation of the effects of swimming exercises in rats given acrylamide

BACKGROUND

Acrylamide is a toxic substance used in industrial and laboratory processes. Acrylamide exposure has a toxic effect on many systems. Protective mechanisms should be developed against the effects caused by acrylamide.

OBJECTIVE

In our study, we investigated whether exercise has a protective effect against the changes that acrylamide will cause in pancreas.

METHODS

32 adult Sprague-Dawley male rats were used. Control group was given only saline. Exercise group was applied swimming exercise for 1hour daily for 4 weeks. Acrylamide group was given 50mg/kg acrylamide by gavage for 4 weeks. Acrylamide+exercise group was applied 50mg/kg acrylamide for 4 weeks and swimming exercise for 1hour daily. After the experiment, fasting blood glucose and oral glucose tolerance test measurements were performed. Then, blood and pancreas samples were taken.

RESULTS

Acrylamide exposure caused an increase in fasting blood glucose and oral glucose tolerance, a decrease in insulin levels and oxidative stress in acrylamide group. In exercise group, these values were similar to control group and no significant change was observed in acrylamide+exercise group. While there was an increase in the number of alpha cells in acrylamide group compared to the other groups, here was a decrease in the number of beta cells compared to control group.

CONCLUSION

We can say that acrylamide causes changes in the islets of Langerhans by affecting alpha and beta cell numbers. The protective effect of exercise on beta and alpha cell mass was not statistically significant in the acrylamide+exercise group. When the results were examined, the decrease in oxidative stress and the higher number of beta and alpha cells in the acrylamide+exercise group compared to the acrylamide group suggested that 4 weeks of swimming exercise may have an effect on acrylamide exposure.

Dietary Acrylamide Exposure and Cancer Risk: A Systematic Approach to Human Epidemiological Studies

Acrylamide, identified by the International Cancer Research Center as a possible carcinogenic compound to humans, is a contaminant formed as a result of the thermal process in many foods, such as coffee, French fries, biscuits and bread, which are frequently consumed by individuals in their daily lives. The biggest concern about acrylamide is that the health risks have not yet been fully elucidated. For this reason, many studies have been carried out on acrylamide in the food, nutrition and health equation. This study focused on epidemiological studies examining the associations between dietary acrylamide exposure and cancer risk. For this purpose, articles published in PubMed, Isı Web of Knowledge, Scopus and Science Direct databases between January 2002 and April 2022 were systematically examined using various keywords, and a total of 63 articles were included in the study. Although some studies on reproductive, urinary, gastrointestinal, respiratory and other systems and organs stated that there is a positive relationship between dietary acrylamide exposure and cancer risk, many publications did not disclose a relationship in this direction. Studies examining the relationship between dietary acrylamide exposure and cancer should be planned to include more people and foods in order to obtain more reliable results. Making research plans in this way is very important in terms of guiding health policies to be formed in the future.

Determining the Levels of Acrylamide in Some Traditional Foods Unique to Turkey and Risk Assessment

In this study, exposure risk assessment was made by determining the acrylamide levels of some traditional foods frequently consumed by the Turkish society and registered geographical indication. For this purpose, acrylamide levels of 20 traditional foods [7 meat products, 3 loaves of bread, 3 bagels (simit), and 7 desserts] obtained from different bakeries, patisseries, and restaurants were determined by LC-MS/MS. Acrylamide levels were determined between 12.7 - 299 μg/kg in meat products, 11.8 - 69.3 μg/kg in bread, 11.8 - 179 μg/kg in bagels, 11.7 - 85.0 μg/kg in baked desserts, and 32.3 - 527 μg/kg in deep-fried desserts. According to the portion size, the food with the highest acrylamide level in meat products is Adana kebab (17.70 μg/180 g). Formulation and cooking techniques are thought to be the main determinants of acrylamide level detected in traditional foods. Dietary acrylamide exposure was calculated according to the deterministic model. Exposure was calculated as 0.20, 0.53, and 0.98 μg/kg bw per day for good, average and bad scenarios, respectively. The calculated acrylamide exposure value is below the reference values stated by FAO/WHO. The acrylamide dietary exposure was not of concern concerning neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity. The results can be used to reduce acrylamide levels in foods and risk assessment studies.