New EU guidance values for acrylamide

Eurofins Food Testing Newsletter N° 36 - July 2011

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In January 2011, the EU Commission published a recommendation (C2010 9681 final) on investigations into the levels of acrylamide in food. This process contaminant of toxicological relevance is formed from asparagine and reducing sugars during heat treatment. Several “Guidance Values” came into force based on the concept of the German signal values, for the following food categories:

• bread, baked goods and fine bakery wares, e.g. soft bread
• cereals
• baby food
• potato products
• coffee (products)

For gingerbread, potato pancakes and coffee substitutes no EU guidance values exist so far. For these the German signal values remain valid for Germany. Eurofins | WEJ Contaminants has established efficient and reliable methods for the determination of acrylamide from all relevant food groups based on LC-MS/ MS technology.

Contact: sabrinament@eurofins.de