Acrylamide in gingerbread worse than potato chips

Ernest Gill, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Erlangen, Germany

Hansel and Gretel faced more danger from the gingerbread house itself than from the wicked witch inside, according to new research in Germany showing that gingerbread contains high levels of hazardous cancer-causing acrylamide.

Gingerbread contains concentrations of acrylamide seven times those found in fried potatoes, Bavarian Health Ministry chemist Gerhard Jungkunz said recently.

The new findings come as part of ground-breaking nationwide studies into potentially hazardous fried and baked starchy foods. Germany is the first major country to attempt to come to grips with the acrylamide threat and is preparing guidelines for the food industry.

Federal Consumer Minister Renate Kuenast, an outspoken Greens politician who has been in the spotlight amid food industry scandals in recent years, has called on the nation to reduce consumption of potato crisps, corn chips, fried potatoes, biscuits/cookies, crispy bread and most packaged breakfast cereals such as corn flakes.

While saying she did not yet feel legislation was necessary, Kuenast says the government would soon be issuing findings showing that popular brands of snack chips and French fries contain disturbingly high levels of acrylamide.

The tests are being conducted by the same Swedish government scientists who last summer first discovered the cancer-causing chemical in certain fried and baked starchy foods.

"Final research findings will not be out until early next year," Kuenast's spokesman Matthias Berninger said. "But it is already clear that this is a very, very serious problem."

For that reason, Kuenast's ministry has adopted a "strategy of minimization" - which means she wants Germans just to cut down on foods that contain acrylamide. At the same time, food manufacturers are being asked to take immediate steps to reduce the acrylamide risk in their products.

Acrylamide is a chemical used in the manufacture of plastics. It was first discovered to be present in certain foods cooked at high temperatures as the result of work announced in Sweden last April. It is a known carcinogen and causes nerve damage.

Kuenast said she was moving now to inform the public of the risks from acrylamide in different foods, and to work with industry and academia to understand how acrylamide is formed and how to prevent its formation.

In a process not yet fully understood, acrylamide forms as a result of unknown chemical reactions during high-temperature baking or frying. Raw or even boiled potatoes test negative for the chemical.

The German ministry official acknowledged that it is not yet possible to determine what percentage of overall acrylamide presence in the human body comes from starch-based foods.

Indeed, because other food, such as fruits, vegetables, meats and seafood, and beverages and other exposures such as cigarettes, can also result in acrylamide entering the human body, it is not known what percentage of the total acrylamide in a human body is from food sources.

And scientists do not yet know how quickly the body can break down acrylamide.

In the meantime, and as the food industry endeavours to bring acrylamide levels down, Kuenast is warning Germans to cut back voluntarily.

"There has long been reason for Germans to eat less greasy fried potatoes and snack foods," she said. "Acrylamide is yet another reason to eat less of those foods."

And gingerbread has now joined the list of such foods. While noting that the acrylamide levels in gingerbread are high, researchers in Bavaria cautioned against panic -- particularly now in the pre-Christmas season when gingerbread is consumed by millions of Germans.

"People should not eat large quantities of gingerbread," Bavarian Health Ministry spokesman Knut Engelbrecht said Monday. "But acrylamid is not the only reason for that. Gingerbread is fattening and high in sugar and cholesterol. Those are good reasons why nobody should over-indulge on gingerbread."