Results on acrylamide levels in food from monitoring year 2008

Commission Recommendation 2007/331/EC of 3 May 2007 on the monitoring of acrylamide levels in food requires the Member States to perform annually in 2007, 2008 and 2009 the monitoring of acrylamide levels in certain foodstuffs. The current report describes the results of the monitoring exercise for 2008. A total of 22 Member States and Norway submitted to EFSA 3461 results. The mean acrylamide level (upper bound values) ranged from 23 µg/kg for ‘bread non-specified’ to 1124 µg/kg for ‘substitute coffee’. Both the highest 95th percentile value and maximum value were reported for ‘substitute coffee’ at 3300 and 7095 µg/kg, respectively. The 2008 results were compared with the 3281 results collected in 2007. The product categories ‘potato crisps’, ‘instant coffee’ and ‘substitute coffee’ showed statistically significantly higher levels of acrylamide in 2008 data compared to 2007 data. On the other hand, ‘French fries’ and ‘fried potato products for home cooking’, ‘soft bread’, ‘bread not specified’, ‘infant biscuit’, ‘biscuit not specified’, ‘muesli and porridge’ and ‘other products not specified’ showed statistically significantly lower levels of acrylamide in 2008 data compared to 2007 data. There were no statistically significant differences in acrylamide level for the other food groups. This report suggests lower acrylamide values in 2008 compared to 2007. Whether this represents a trend towards lower acrylamide levels over time will become clearer from the results obtained in the coming years. An exposure assessment will be carried out next year to determine the biological relevance of any change in acrylamide levels over the three years analysed.