Cancer warning on breakfast cereals, crisps and baby food
POPULAR breakfast cereals, crisps and even food designed for babies and toddlers have raised levels of a cancer-risk chemical, according to food watchdogs.
Fifteen samples of products bought on UK high streets had raised levels of acrylamide, which is formed in the baking, roasting, frying and toasting of starchy foods.
Higher levels were found in a pack of Honey Monster Puffs, previously known as Sugar Puffs, and a Hovis loaf of brown bread with added wheat flakes.
Own-label breakfast cereal bran flakes sold by the Co-op and Sainsbury’s had raised levels, as did Askey’s ice cream wafers and stem ginger biscuits sold under the Fox’s Crinkle Crunch brand.
Looking at baby foods, raised levels were registered in spaghetti bolognese from Cow & Gate and organic apple rice cakes from Organix Finger Foods.
Crisps have a particular problem with acrylamide and raised levels of the chemical were found in packs sold under the Seabrook, Burts and Snackrite brands.
The details have been revealed by the Food Standards Agency, which has advised Britons to reduce consumption of acrylamide on the basis of cancer concerns raised by the World Health Organisation.
Previously, the FSA has run into controversy after issuing warnings against eating crispy roast potatoes and burned toast, which are known to carry higher levels of the chemical.
It has advised family cooks to ensure such foods are no darker than a golden yellow.
Last year, its chief scientific adviser, Dr Guy Poppy, warned: ‘Many studies with laboratory animals would suggest acrylamide has potential to cause cancer in humans.’ But other academics have challenged the warnings and described the evidence of a threat to human health as ‘extremely weak’.
The Government’s food watchdog and others in Europe have been running surveys of processed foods sold on the high street to establish acrylamide levels and put pressure on manufacturers to minimise them.
The point of the surveys and resulting laboratory tests is to discover if any of the products have acrylamide levels that are above an ‘indicative value’ or IV, which is effectively the maximum acceptable level. Manufac- turers of products which have a reading above the IV are warned they need to take action.
Each type of product has its own IV. With crisps, it is 1,000 micrograms per kilogram, but it is only 50 micrograms per kilogram for baby foods.
The Cow & Gate and Organix products identified in the survey were only fractionally above this figure, but both brands have been warned in the past about the need to reduce acrylamide levels.
The FSA tests for acrylamide involved 269 products that were collected from shelves last year, but they have only now been published. The watchdog said: ‘Where an acrylamide level has exceeded an indicative value in our survey, the FSA will ask the relevant local authority to investigate with the food business what action may have already been taken to limit acrylamide formation and to see whether further action is possible.’
The Food and Drink Federation, which speaks for manufacturers, said: ‘FDF and its members have been working with supply chain partners, regulators and other bodies, at home and abroad, to reduce the formation of acrylamide for a number of years.’
The British Retail Consortium, which speaks for supermarkets, said: ‘ Retailers take their responsibilities towards food safety seriously and will take action where required to reduce acrylamide levels in the small number of own brand products which have been identified by the FSA’s research.’
‘Put pressure on manufacturers’