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Furan, a potential carcinogen, has been detected in highly consumed starchy foods, such as bread and snacks; however, research on furan generation in these food matrixes has not been undertaken, thus far. The present study explored the effect of ascorbic acid addition and cooking methods (frying and baking) over furan occurrence and its relation with the non-enzymatic browning in a wheat flour starchy food model system. Results showed that furan generation significantly increased in the presence of ascorbic acid after 7 min of heating (p < 0.05). The strongest effect was observed for baked products. Additionally, the furan content in fried products increased with the increase of the oil uptake levels. As for Maillard reactions, in general, the furan level in all samples linearly correlated with their degree of non-enzymatic browning, represented by L* and a* color parameters (e.g., wheat flour baked samples showed a R(2) of 0.88 and 0.87 for L* and a*, respectively), when the sample moisture content decreased during heating.

In April 2002, Swedish researchers shocked the world when they presented preliminary findings on the presence of acrylamide in fried and baked foods, most notably potato chips and French fries, at levels of 30-2,300 ppb. The objective of this research was to study the effect of immersing potato slices in a NaCl solution over the acrylamide formation in the resultant potato chips. Potato slices (Verdi variety, diameter 40 mm, width 2.0 mm) were fried at 170°C for 5 min (final moisture content of ∼2.0%). Prior to frying, the potato slices were treated in one of the following ways: (1) control slices (unblanched or raw potato slices); (2) slices blanched at 90°C for 5 min in water; (3) slices blanched at 90°C for 5 min plus immersed in a 1 g/100 g NaCl solution at 25°C for 5 min; (4) slices blanched at 90°C for 5 min plus immersed in a 3 g/100 g NaCl solution at 25°C for 5 min; (5) slices blanched at 90°C for 5 min plus immersed in distilled water at 25°C for 5 min; and (6) slices blanched at 90°C for 5 min in a 3 g/100 g NaCl solution. Blanching followed by the immersion of potato slices in 1 g/100 g NaCl solution was effective in reducing acrylamide content in ∼62%; however, almost half of this percentage (∼27%) could be attributed to the effect of NaCl and 35% to the effect of the slight heating treatment during salt immersion step (25°C for 5 min). Blanching seems to make the NaCl diffusion in potato tissue easier leading to a significant acrylamide reduction in the potato slices after frying.