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

Low molecular weight chitosan attenuates acrylamide-induced toxicity in Drosophila melanogaster

Acrylamide (ACR), a toxic by-product of high-temperature food processing, poses significant health risks due to its oxidative, neurotoxic, and genotoxic properties. Regulatory measures focus on limiting ACR in commercial food products, yet daily cooking practices often result in unnoticed exposure, threatening vulnerable populations such as children. This study evaluates the protective role of low and medium molecular-weight (MW) chitosan against ACR-induced toxicity using Drosophila melanogaster. Chitosan, a natural polysaccharide with antioxidant and prebiotic properties, was supplemented alongside ACR exposure in larvae and adult flies. Developmental metrics such as pupation rates, fecundity, and adult emergence were assessed, alongside oxidative stress markers and neurobehavioral outcomes. ACR exposure impaired development, increased oxidative stress, and reduced locomotor activity. Supplementation with low and medium MW chitosan alleviated these effects, with low MW chitosan demonstrating greater efficacy. These findings reveal the potential of low MW chitosan as a dietary intervention to counteract the toxic effects of contaminants like ACR. By reducing oxidative stress, preserving mitochondrial function, and supporting developmental processes, chitosan offers a promising avenue for mitigating the overall toxicity of heat-processed toxins. These findings further highlight chitosan's molecular weight-dependent protective potential against ACR toxicity, offering insights into its application as a dietary mitigator of heat-processed toxins.

Estimation of the Dietary Acrylamide Exposure of the Turkish Population: An Emerging Threat for Human Health

Acrylamide is a contaminant formed during heat treatment that poses potential health risks and occurs naturally in foods. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate exposure from the consumption of foods containing acrylamide since dietary exposure continues throughout life. In this study, the acrylamide exposure level of people living in Türkiye is estimated. Consumption of a total of 28 foods in 9 different food groups was calculated using a deterministic model under two different scenarios. The exposure levels were evaluated in terms of carcinogenic, non-carcinogenic and neurotoxic health risks. The daily total acrylamide exposure levels of individuals aged 15 and older were determined as 58 µg/day (0.85 µg/kg bw/day) and 196 µg/day (2.80 µg/kg bw/day) for the good and bad scenarios, respectively. The highest daily acrylamide exposure in the good scenario came from brewed black tea (29%), whereas French fries (50%) were the source of highest daily acrylamide exposure in the bad scenario. According to the hazard index (HI) and margin of exposure (MOE) data, the good scenario (all food) is considered safe, while the bad scenario (all food) has potential and serious health risks. According to the carcinogenic risk (CR) data, both scenarios carry significant health risks. It is therefore important that consumers, producers and official institutions collaborate and take measures to reduce acrylamide exposure.

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.

Red Meat Heating Processes, Toxic Compounds Production and Nutritional Parameters Changes: What about Risk-Benefit?

The heating process is a crucial step that can lead to the formation of several harmful chemical compounds in red meat such as heterocyclic aromatic amines, N-Nitrosamines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and acrylamide. Meat has high nutritional value, providing essential amino acids, bioactive compounds and several important micronutrients which can also be affected by heating processes. This review aims to provide an updated overview of the effects of different heating processes on both the safety and nutritional parameters of cooked red meat. The most-used heating processes practices were taken into consideration in order to develop a risk-benefit scenario for each type of heating process and red meat.

Toxicity, metabolism, and mitigation strategies of acrylamide: a comprehensive review

Acrylamide, a food-borne chemical toxicant, has raised global concern in recent decades. It mainly originated from reducing sugar and free amino acid interactions in the carbohydrate-rich foodstuffs heated at high temperatures. Due to the neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity of AA, the mechanism of formation, toxic effects on health, and mitigation strategies, including conventional approaches and innovative technologies, have been of great interest since its discovery in food. Potato products (especially French fries and crisps), coffee, and cereals(bread and biscuit) are renowned contributors to AA's daily intake. The best preventive methods discussed in the literature include time/temperature optimization, blanching, enzymatic treatment, yeast treatment, additives, pulsed electric fields, ultrasound, vacuum roasting, air frying, and irradiation, exhibiting a high efficacy in AA elimination in food products.

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.

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.