Abstract
The discovery of the adventitious formation of the potential cancer-causing agent acrylamide in a variety of foods during cooking1,2 has raised much concern3,4, but the chemical mechanism(s) governing its production are unclear. Here we show that acrylamide can be released by the thermal treatment of certain amino acids (asparagine, for example), particularly in combination with reducing sugars, and of early Maillard reaction products (N-glycosides)5. Our findings indicate that the Maillard-driven generation of flavour and colour in thermally processed foods can — under particular conditions — be linked to the formation of acrylamide.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Swedish National Food Agency website http://www.slv.se
Rosén, J. & Hellenäs, K.-E The Analyst 127, 880–882 (2002).
WHO FAO/WHO Consultation on the Health Implications of Acrylamide in Food (Geneva, 25–27 June 2002) http://www.who.int/fsf/
European Commission Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Food on New Findings Regarding the Presence of Acrylamide in Food (SCF/CS/CNTM/CONT/4 Final, 3 July 2002) http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/scf/index_en.html
Ledl, F. & Schleicher, E. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 29,565–594 (1990).
Paulsen, H. & Pflughaupt, H. in The Carbohydrates – Chemistry and Biochemistry (eds Pigman, W. & Hortin, D.) Vol. 1B, 881–927 (Academic, New York, 1980).
Von Euler, H. & Brunius, E. Chem. Ber. 59, 1581–1585 (1926).
Chen, J., Pill, T. & Beck, W. Z. Naturforsch. B 44, 459–464 (1989).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stadler, R., Blank, I., Varga, N. et al. Acrylamide from Maillard reaction products. Nature 419, 449–450 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/419449a
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/419449a
This article is cited by
-
The effect of the use of pekmez and honey as sugar substitutes on the quality characteristics and the acrylamide content of sponge cakes and cookies
Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization (2024)
-
Formation of glycidol fatty acid esters and 3-monochloro-1,2-propanediol fatty acid esters in heated foods
Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization (2024)
-
Cloning, expression, and characterization of a novel thermo-acidophilic l-asparaginase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa CSPS4
3 Biotech (2024)
-
Transcriptome analysis of the cerebral cortex of acrylamide-exposed wild-type and IL-1β-knockout mice
Archives of Toxicology (2024)
-
Evaluation of the efficiency of thermostable l-asparaginase from B. licheniformis UDS-5 for acrylamide mitigation during preparation of French fries
World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology (2024)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.