Calcium Chloride Reduces Acrylamide Levels

In "Everyday Poison", I pointed out the fact that every agency in the world (except the FDA) sees the danger of acrylamide in food. Here is another follow up on research being done to reduce the level of acrylamide in potato chips and french fries, two foods that produce high levels of acrylamide when cooked.

Using the common food additive calcium chloride could reduce the formation of acrylamide in potato chips and French fries by about 95 per cent, according to a new study.

"Calcium chloride, as a food additive (E 509), is widely used as a firming agent during processing. It could now be used by the food industry to control the formation of acrylamide," wrote Vural Gokmen and Hamide Senyuva in the journal Food Chemistry.

Acrylamide is a carcinogen that is created when starchy foods are baked, roasted, fried or toasted. It first hit the headlines in 2002, when scientists at the Swedish Food Administration first reported unexpectedly high levels of acrylamide, found to cause cancer in laboratory rats, in carbohydrate-rich foods.

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The researchers, from Hacettepe University and the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, report that by immersing the potato crisps and French fries in the calcium chloride solution prior to the frying process, could reduce the formation of this cancer-causing compound.

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The cut potatoes were immersed in a solution of calcium chloride for 15, 30 or 60 minutes and then fried in sunflower oil for five minutes at 170 degrees Celsius, to enable the Maillard browning reaction to occur.

"It has been shown that Maillard-driven generation of flavour and colour in heated foods can be linked to the formation of acrylamide," explained the authors.

They report that without any calcium chloride addition, acrylamide formation exceeded 700 micrograms per kilograms of potato. This was significantly decreased however on immersion in the calcium chloride solution, with acrylamide levels decreasing with respect to dipping time.

"When compared to the amount of acrylamide formed in potato strips without pre-treatment, percentage inhibition of acrylamide formation increased to ca. 95 per cent by dipping in calcium chloride solution for 60 min at room temperature," wrote the researchers.

To sum it up, soaking these items in calcium chloride before frying reduces the amount of acrylamide by 95%. That's even better than soaking them in bamboo leaf extract.

With all this research taking place, acrylamide in our foods will be next to nil before the FDA even acknowledges there was a problem in the first place.