More on Acrylamides

Check out the article: http://www.foodqualitynews.com/Publications/Food-Beverage-Nutrition/FoodNavigator/Science-Nutrition/Acrylamide-not-linked-to-GI-cancer-risk-Study/?c=%2BlZ8zGql8mrmAmsDCii%2FSA%3D%3D

Now, I know we are in uncharted territory here, and that prudence is highly advised. After all, cancer is nothing to trifle with, so anything we do to avoid it seems reasonable, no? Food is to preserve life, not risk it!

But.... if there is actually no evidence that normally ingested food products increase the cancer rate in actual humans (and I am NOT talking about humans who eat 20 kg of potato chips in a day), what is the real risk? If it is down in the realm of getting hit by an asteroid, it seems that overreaction has taken hold here. Note that most of us do not regularly carry asteroid umbrellas, we take the risk for what it is. Even if the small chance of being wrong has quite severe consequences.

Now, the recent California litigation (see below) is government-driven, so I don't expect them to be constrained by any real facts. Rather, I expect that situation to continue for some time. But for the rest of us non-Californians, we had better be asking the tough questions and doing our homework regarding acrylamide and food safety. Because the risk either way seems significant in terms of both food safety issues as well as the sustainability of the processed potato market.

Tim

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