Lactic acid fermentation as a tool to reduce formation of acrylamide in fried potato products and roasted coffee.

Acrylamide is known to be a neurotoxin, are genome-affecting and are proven to induce cancer in humans. Acrylamide and other Maillard products are formed at high food processing temperatures Many of the reaction products formed are visible to the naked ey e such as brown coloration of products that are fried or oven baked. Examples are crisp bread, fried potato products, cookies and coffee. Life time cancer risk are estimated to more than one per thousand in a seventy year lifespan. Fried potato products and coffee together supply almost 50% of the total amount of acrylamide in a population. Efforts to reduce this amount are therefore in demand. The major route for acrylamide formation is the reaction between asparagine and the carbonyl group of a reducin g sugar such as glucose. Thus a major challenge is to reduce the amount of either one of these two reactants. By the use of Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB technology) it has previously been shown that we are able to decrease the amount of reducing sugars with the concomitant reduction of acrylamide in fried potato products. However, if we were to address the coffee industry, it has been shown that the availability of asparagine as substrate for acrylamide formation is the most important target. In this proj ect we are applying for resources to verify the selection of an optimal strain of LAB which possess the capacity to produce asparaginase, which will reduce the amount of asparagine during the production of roasted coffee and also work with potato products ; and which conditions this strain requires in optimizing the quantitative reduction of acrylamide in potato and coffee products. The final aim is to produce healthier fried potatoes and coffee and to commercialise this technology in the potato and coffee industry.