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 …
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. 👦🐈
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. 👦🐈