Production of acrylamide in agricultural products by cooking

Some model studies were performed using various agricultural Products, to clarify the relation between cooking conditions and production of acrylamide (AA). Disc chips made from dried mashed potato, corn meal, wheat flour, rice flour (jyohshin-ko) and glutinous rice flour (shiratama-ko), and dried sesame (arai-goma) and dried almond were baked at 120-200degreesC for 5-20 min, and the samples were analyzed for the levels of AA. When the samples were baked for 10 min, the highest production of AA was observed at 180-200degreesC. When the samples were baked at 180degreesC, AA levels in agricultural products except sesame were highest after baking for 10 min. Vegetables and fruit were baked at 220degreesC for 5 min with a oven, high AA concentrations were found in baked potato, asparagus, pumpkin, eggplant and green gram sprouts. Concentrations of AA in potato, asparagus and green gram sprouts baked after being precooked by microwave irradiation were higher than those in the products baked without being precooked. On the other hand, the precooking by boiling reduced the production of AA by baking to 1/10-1/4. Acrylamide was not found in microwaved or boiled vegetables. High free asparagine concentrations in crops tended to result in high concentrations of AA being produced by heating the agricultural products.