Common food additives may cut acrylamide formation in potato chips

Common food additives like calcium chloride and l-cysteine could reduce the formation of acrylamide in potato chips by about 85 per cent, according to a new study.

"This research presents a technology to inhibit acrylamide formation in fried potato chips by immersion of fresh potato chips with some food additives,"wrote the researchers in the journal Innovative Food Science &Emerging Technologies.

"It was found that l-cysteine showed little effect on the texture of the crisps and CaCl₂ is regarded as the suitable choice because of its low price and the acceptable mouth feel of fried crisps treated by CaCl₂, although it increased the brittleness," wrote lead author Shiyi Ou.