What sort of foods are afected?
What can you do?
In general
Baking
Acrylamide forms mostly in grain and potato products that are prepared at high temperatures, e.g.:
crisps, chips, toast, rolls, bread,
baked goods made from shortcrust pastry (speciality biscuits and cakes).
You can avoid high levels of acrylamide when baking, frying and grilling.
The following recommendations were published by AID1 and BMVEL2 to help you minimise acrylamide levels:
Keep cooking times as short as possible.
„Brown rather than burn“ – cook food only until it is golden brown.
The larger and thicker the food is, the less acrylamide it contains.
Set the temperature to a maximum of 200 ºC when using the top/bottom heating setting, and to a maximum of 180 ºC for the
Cookies: Set the temperature to a maximum of 190 ºC when using the top/bottom heating setting, and to a maximum of 170 ºC for the
Spread oven chips evenly over the baking sheet in one layer where possible. To prevent the food from drying out quickly, place at least 400 g on each baking sheet.
1AID “Acrylamide“ information leaflet, published by AID (German Evaluation and Information Service for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry) and BMVEL (German Federal Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture), as at 12/02,
Internet: http://www.aid.de.
2BMVEL press release 365, as at 4.12.2002,
Internet: http://www.verbraucherministerium.de
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