Validation of a database on acrylamide for use in epidemiological studies

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Acrylamide, a probable human carcinogen, was detected in various heat-treated foods such as French fries and potato crisps. Recently, positive associations have been found between dietary acrylamide intakes, as estimated with a food frequency questionnaire using an acrylamide database, and cancer risk in some epidemiological studies. As acrylamide levels vary considerably within the same type of foods, a validation study was performed to investigate whether use of an acrylamide food database containing calculated mean acrylamide content, based on extensive sampling and chemical analysis of Dutch foods (several samples per food), can classify subjects with respect to true acrylamide intake. Subjects/Methods: We used the data from a 24-h duplicate diet study. The acrylamide content of 39 Dutch 24-h duplicate diets collected in 2004 was estimated using the mean acrylamide levels of foods available from the database and the menu list, on which the participants of the duplicate diet study had listed the amounts of individual foods and drinks in household units. Next, the acrylamide content of the total duplicate diets was analytically measured and correlated to the estimated acrylamide contents. Results: The Spearman's correlation coefficient between chemically determined acrylamide content and the calculated acrylamide content of the duplicate diets was 0.82 (Po0.001).Conclusions: This study indicates that it is possible to classify subjects with respect to acrylamide intake if mean instead of actual content of each food is applied. The database can therefore be applied in epidemiological studies on acrylamide intake and cancer risk, such as the Netherlands Cohort Study on Diet and Cancer.

Dietary acrylamide intake and risk of breast cancer: The Japan Public Health Center‐based Prospective Study

“…From the national dietary survey in Japan in 2012, acrylamide intake was estimated by Monte Carlo simulation to be 0.166 μg/kg bodyweight per day . This level is less than half of that reported in Western populations, namely 0.45 μg/kg bodyweight per day in the Dutch and 0.41 μg/kg bodyweight per day in Norwegians . These levels are lower than in animal studies; however, when the benchmark dose lower confidence limit (BMDL 10 ) is 0.31 mg/kg bodyweight per day for mammary tumors in rats, the MOE is <10 000 .…”

Dietary Acrylamide Intake and the Risk of Lymphatic Malignancies: The Netherlands Cohort Study on Diet and Cancer

“…Moreover, a recent study has shown that it is feasible to make a sound rank ordering of the acrylamide intake via a 24-hour meal using the mean acrylamide levels used in the NLCS study for individual foods. [27]. Secondly, the acrylamide values in our food database were derived from foods that were sampled in 2002 and 2005.…”

“…To determine the acrylamide level for each food, the mean values of the acrylamide measurements per food were used, or, in case the concentrations were lower than the quantitation limit, a value one-half the quantitation limit. This database was recently validated in a study comparing estimated acrylamide content (using acrylamide data from the database) and measured acrylamide content of duplicate 24-hour diets [27]. This rendered a correlation coefficient of 0.82, which indicates that it is feasible to make a sound rank ordering of the acrylamide intake via a 24-hour meal using the mean acrylamide levels for individual foods in the database.…”

Dietary acrylamide intake and risk of breast cancer in the UK women's cohort

“…The EU database was set up to permit monitoring of acrylamide levels in food products throughout the whole EU, which includes the UK. A recent validation study compared estimated acrylamide intake based on average acrylamide levels of food items, such as those available in the EU database, compared with chemically analysed content (Konings et al , 2010). The correlation between chemically determined acrylamide content and estimated acrylamide content was very high, indicating that using single acrylamide values for individual foods based on average values of several available samples, such as that reported in the EU database, results in a good rank ordering of most subjects, despite the large variation of acrylamide concentrations within single foods.…”