Acrylamide forms from frying, roasting and baking at high temperatures. People like the taste of grilled meat that has been darkened, but it contains acrylamide, which is toxic.
Acrylamide forms from frying, roasting and baking at high temperatures. People like the taste of grilled meat that has been darkened, but it contains acrylamide, which is toxic.
Barbara, thus has been flying around on the interwebs lately, finally took a look myself. The studies that I found date back to early 2000s (there are many more, just what I found) that looked at the formation acrylamide during cooking. 1) doesn’t require HIGH heat, 180°C/~350°F is sufficient - so, normal baking/cooking temps; 2) mostly methionine and arginine that have the reactive group - interestingly, these are highest in plant sources (potatoes, flour,…); 3) the studies were carried out in aqueous solutions with free amino acids - I didn’t find studies using proteins so I don’t know how the formation of acrylamide is affected by the two amino acids present only as part of a protein (I also didn’t look that hard); 4) the studies I saw had the free amino acids in equi-molar amounts with glucose - necessary for the reaction (Maillard reaction). I frequently came across "wiggle" words: "particular" conditions, the formation of acrylamide "may" occur,…
So, while it’s possible and acrylamide probably can be detected, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
This caught my interest first time ‘round because I use to use acrylamide back in the 80s when I was working on developing an in vitro glucose sensor for an synthetic pancreas - I was forming thin membranes of polyacrylamide containing an enzyme - had to come up with a protocol for polymerization that wouldn’t destroy the enzyme. Fun stuff, fun days. Anyway, one of the issues I was concerned about up front, since this membrane would eventually go IN the body, was the issue of free acrylamide post polymerization. Turned out to be a non-issue, any neurological deficits I have today I came about naturally. Miss those days - my biggest worry these days is feeding the katz sufficiently so they don’t eat my face at night. 👦🐈
Acrylamide forms from frying, roasting and baking at high temperatures. People like the taste of grilled meat that has been darkened, but it contains acrylamide, which is toxic.
Barbara, thus has been flying around on the interwebs lately, finally took a look myself. The studies that I found date back to early 2000s (there are many more, just what I found) that looked at the formation acrylamide during cooking. 1) doesn’t require HIGH heat, 180°C/~350°F is sufficient - so, normal baking/cooking temps; 2) mostly methionine and arginine that have the reactive group - interestingly, these are highest in plant sources (potatoes, flour,…); 3) the studies were carried out in aqueous solutions with free amino acids - I didn’t find studies using proteins so I don’t know how the formation of acrylamide is affected by the two amino acids present only as part of a protein (I also didn’t look that hard); 4) the studies I saw had the free amino acids in equi-molar amounts with glucose - necessary for the reaction (Maillard reaction). I frequently came across "wiggle" words: "particular" conditions, the formation of acrylamide "may" occur,…
So, while it’s possible and acrylamide probably can be detected, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
This caught my interest first time ‘round because I use to use acrylamide back in the 80s when I was working on developing an in vitro glucose sensor for an synthetic pancreas - I was forming thin membranes of polyacrylamide containing an enzyme - had to come up with a protocol for polymerization that wouldn’t destroy the enzyme. Fun stuff, fun days. Anyway, one of the issues I was concerned about up front, since this membrane would eventually go IN the body, was the issue of free acrylamide post polymerization. Turned out to be a non-issue, any neurological deficits I have today I came about naturally. Miss those days - my biggest worry these days is feeding the katz sufficiently so they don’t eat my face at night. 👦🐈