Caramelising of food is a vital part of baking, of frying, grilling, barbecuing, toasting, roasting, and perhaps even 'popping'. If there is a colour change from on the way from white, through all stages of brown to black you can bet that its got acrylamide there or in the making.
What seems to be missing from all the warnings on acrylamide is the crisping factor. Crisping, crunchiness, crackling, crumbly, crusty; all these so desirable in everything we cook - pies, cakes, pastries, breads, and of course toasts and crisps that come to mind so easily. Crispness and the crunch infers a brittleness. That in itself is not bad but in the nature of the rush haste to get food into our mouths and down our gullets it is inevitable that that quite a bit of trauma is imposed on the lining of the oesophagus and upper stomach. So not only is our body coping with a roughness or sharpness, it is the most burned food that is doing this damage and thereby adding a mechanical damage to the chemical damage causing chronic inflammation, a precursor of cancer. See here
As old as cooking itself. That's how long mankind has been exposed to acrylamide. And it is as certain as day follows night that it was the caramelised animals, at first unwittingly caught up in fires, and then of course purposely, whose smell and taste inured forever man to the concept of cooking.
And it is caramelising, be it sugars and refined carbohydrates, protein or fat that produces in one form or another the acrylamides that are now getting a public airing. Cancer Research UK says crisps, chips and biscuits are major sources of acrylamide here
The headlines generated in the UK were widespread in the tablet press and well represented in the broadsheets. However no matter how much by way of warning was made the press in an attempt to expand their copy pressed many scientists and sceptics to undermine the thrust of the information.
The FSA in the UK, the Food Standards Agency, for once was trying to get a message across to prevent serious illness in the wide sense. Its failure in the horse meat scandal brought many a caustic and cynical remark - but it was at least a start.
However important it seemed for the public to be aware of acrylamide in cooking practice there was an immediate softening or amelioration of the problem by a scale of recommended level that were acceptable - this is a failure - if something is poisonous any exposure is dangerous.BBC Radio 4 article and Britains Food Standard Authority report here.
Although the advice to cook no more than produces a golden colour is on the way to solving the problem it is only that because any colour change infers the presence of acrylamides. There needs a rethink on the way of capturing crunch in eating without the worry of producing what is indeed a toxic substance.
What seems to be missing from all the warnings on acrylamide is the crisping factor. Crisping, crunchiness, crackling, crumbly, crusty; all these so desirable in everything we cook - pies, cakes, pastries, breads, and of course toasts and crisps that come to mind so easily. Crispness and the crunch infers a brittleness. That in itself is not bad but in the nature of the rush haste to get food into our mouths and down our gullets it is inevitable that that quite a bit of trauma is imposed on the lining of the oesophagus and upper stomach. So not only is our body coping with a roughness or sharpness, it is the most burned food that is doing this damage and thereby adding a mechanical damage to the chemical damage causing chronic inflammation, a precursor of cancer. See here
As old as cooking itself. That's how long mankind has been exposed to acrylamide. And it is as certain as day follows night that it was the caramelised animals, at first unwittingly caught up in fires, and then of course purposely, whose smell and taste inured forever man to the concept of cooking.
And it is caramelising, be it sugars and refined carbohydrates, protein or fat that produces in one form or another the acrylamides that are now getting a public airing. Cancer Research UK says crisps, chips and biscuits are major sources of acrylamide here
The FSA in the UK, the Food Standards Agency, for once was trying to get a message across to prevent serious illness in the wide sense. Its failure in the horse meat scandal brought many a caustic and cynical remark - but it was at least a start.
However important it seemed for the public to be aware of acrylamide in cooking practice there was an immediate softening or amelioration of the problem by a scale of recommended level that were acceptable - this is a failure - if something is poisonous any exposure is dangerous.BBC Radio 4 article and Britains Food Standard Authority report here.
Although the advice to cook no more than produces a golden colour is on the way to solving the problem it is only that because any colour change infers the presence of acrylamides. There needs a rethink on the way of capturing crunch in eating without the worry of producing what is indeed a toxic substance.
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