Chemical Contaminants

Last Friday, the European Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed, mostly referred to as ScoPAFF voted an a proposal to ban Chlorpropham (or CIPC), widely used in the potato industry as sprout inhibitor during potato storage.

Intake of foods high in acrylamide during pregnancy is associated with lower birth weight and smaller head circumference. This was revealed in an international study of the diet of 1,100 pregnant women and newborns from Denmark, England, Greece, Norway...

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published its annual update report on acrylamide levels in food in 25 European countries. Acrylamide is a chemical contaminant produced during food processing. The report covers the monitoring period 2007-2...

EFSA has published a summary of acrylamide levels in different types of food sampled in 2008. The report is based on over 3,400 results provided by 22 European Union Member States and Norway. The highest average levels of acrylamide were reported in t...

Onderzoekers van de vakgroep Voedselveiligheid en Voedselkwaliteit van de UGent hebben innovatieve technieken ontwikkeld om het acrylamidegehalte in frietjes te verminderen. Acrylamide is een vermoedelijk kankerverwekkende stof die in meerdere voedings...

Commission Recommendation 2007/331/EC on the monitoring of acrylamide levels in food of 3 May 2007 requires the Member States to perform annually in 2007, 2008 and 2009 the monitoring of acrylamide levels in certain foodstuffs. These data have to be t...

Snack makers on the alert for acrylamide formation in their baked products have a new tool at their disposal to rapidly analyse asparagine levels.   Thermo Fisher Scientific claims its automated photometric method is a "simple and effective&quo...

Efforts to reduce acrylamide remain a priority as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concludes risk assessments regarding the carcinogen will stay the same. EFSA organised a scientific colloquium in Italy last month, to debate how the current po...

Acrylamide in food could increase the risk of developing breast cancer, according to new, EU-funded research published in the International Journal of Cancer. Acrylamide is a small molecule found in certain processed foods. 'Animal tests have shown acr...

Acrylamide formation in heated food became a totally new research field, when its presence in various foods was revealed in 2002. The EU Commission reacted swiftly and in DG Research Framework Programme 6 (FP6) a strategic targeted research project, ...