Acrylamides guideline

As a helpful acrylamides guideline. A toolbox was created. Called CIAA Acrylamide toolbox. Several options were proposed in this toolbox. Investigate and try in relation to formulation and process adaptation. Of these options some or more easier to adapt and implement than others. Suggestions are for biscuits, crackers, wafers crisp bread and gingerbread:

• Remove whole grains from products
• Replace (fully or partially) Ammonium bicarbonate by alternatives
• Use the enzyme Asparginase
• Replace grains with high Aspargine (Asn) by ones with lower Asn
• Evaluate co-ingredients (think of roasted nuts and fruits)
• Replace fructose containing ingredient by dextrose (glucose) or sucrose (sugar)
• Increase product thickness
• Where possible: use long fermentation times
• Reduce oven temperature and bake for a longer time
• Reduce finished product colour
• Remove darker coloured rework when reprocessing it

On a more experimental side they recommend to investigate:

• Adding the Amino Acid Glycine
• Reducing the pH of the product by using organic Acids

The implementation of these recommendation are reasonable to adapt, test and analyse. To certify if they would work in your situation. Past experiences show that not all recommendations are applicable in every situation. In certain cracker products darker coloured products actually contained less Acrylamide than the lighter version from the same production run. On the other hand removing whole wheat or changing the baking profile of your products. It might directly interfere with your finished product quality. We have therefore cover potential solutions that have scientifically proven results in cases and might be applicable in either your current or your future development project.

Conclusion

Understand how much reduction is required to comply with (inter)national guidelines and potentially company guidelines. The socalled ‘low-hanging fruits’ should always be explored first:

• Can Ammonium bicarbonate be replaces by sodium- and calcium based leavening agents?
• Does the addition of calcium based salts (e.g. Calcium carbonate) result in a similar product and lower the Acrylamide (potentially combined with less reducing sugars)?
• Can we add something in or on the product which would prevent the formation of Acrylamide?
  (think of Glycine in or on the product, Cysteine in the product)

Removing monosaccharides (such as fructose or glucose/ dextrose) in either their crystalline form. Or as part of a syrup (invert, high fructose corn syrup, glucose-fructose syrup, etc) can have a major impact of flavouring and colouring. And is therefore not very logical for everyone to take. Adding an enzyme seems therefore a more logical step, however processing conditions should be considered as how to handle it.

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