April 16, 2018 - 9:08am
So, what's your acrylamide quotient?
I know lots of folks here like a dark, blistered crust on their artisan loaves. The EU will now be regulating the amount of acrylamide in prepared foods. It's a substance that is produced when starches such as those found in grains and potatoes are subjected to high heat and if you feed it to rats in high enough dosages they can develop cancer. The regulation has been in development for some time and went into effect last week.
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And all this worry causes stress. People drink, smoke, are over weight, don't take exercise, sleep little, breathe in smog and they're worried about a little toast.
SO much these days is being reported so that the people reading the report are being made to feel fear. Or these reports are being reported by the news as gospel and fact so people are afraid or angry. It seems to be the new norm and standard for effective reporting.Please don't spread fear-mongering information that is half-baked (pun intended).
The facts that you are reporting (not verified but I assume is true) is that the EU is regulating acrylamides in foods. The rest of the info in the post is a bunch of words that may or may not be related but when put together make it sound like they are related or even that one causes another.
I think just being alive causes cancer. It also makes dying much more likely or even dying from cancer.
So enjoy your toast and your dark, blistered crust on that lovely loaf.
I didn't get to complete my original post. So here are some links dealing with what I reported.
http://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/news/eu-acrylamide-legislation-comes-into-force.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/acrylamide-in-coffee-does-it-cause-cancer-2018-3
I'm not attempting to spread panic. I'm just noting that the degree of "doneness" for a wide range of products is now coming under regulatory scrutiny. The information that I've seen indicates that the amount of acrylamide present in foods susceptible to producing it relates directly to the temperature of their preparation. I ain't scared. If my coffee doesn't kill me, my butter will, if my whiskey or (fill in this blank_________) doesn't get me first. At present the EU regulations apply to commercial producers but there are reports that stricter standards will eventually be introduced. The "dangers" (there's a reason I put that word in quotes) of this substance that humans have been ingesting since humans discovered fire wasn't found until 2002 when a bunch of lab rats went belly up after being fed large doses. That has led to my firm resolve never to eat a fried or roasted rat that spent a large part of its time in proximity of a bakery or potato chip factory. Other than that I'll throw caution to the wind and butter my toast and sip my French Roast coffee while looking forward to the crispy fries I'll have with my bacon double cheese burger for lunch......If I live to lunch time.
can kill you. Anything in excess can be harmful, well, not chocolate! ?
Apparently we eat more crisps than just about anyone else in the world. The resulting high acrylamide levels have even been linked to babies being born with lower than normal head circumference!
I think I'll move onto peanuts but stick with the bold bakes!
Lance
If acrylamide causes cancer in humans the average diet (whatever that is) provides 1/450th or maybe 1 /4500th of the equivalent dose the rats got. Can’t remember which it was in the paper I read, as I decided that it seems pretty inconsequential and I’m going to take an informed decision to continue baking my bread to get a decent crust and roasting my potatoes at a high enough temperature to get them beautiful and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
Unfortunately most people don’t understand risk, so these stories scare people silly, It reminds me of the end of the beef on the bone ban in the UK. I’m a retired oncologist, and had several patients ask me if I thought it was really safe for them to go back to eating beef.... whilst continuing to smoke 40 fags a day!
Gill
Rats don't have a diet of toast. Feeding rats huge concentrated doses of this stuff! Is hardly the same as a human being eating some baked grains.
normal amount a human could ever consume in a day. Another reason the Brits were wise to take back their independence and dump these nanny whack jobs in the EU that kept them as slaves:-)
From my cold, dead hands.
lol
from wikipedia:
"Acrylamide is considered a potential occupational carcinogen by U.S. government agencies and classified as a Group 2A carcinogen by the IARC. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have set dermal occupational exposure limits at 0.03 mg/m3 over an eight-hour workday."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylamide
go figure!
I'm more worried about Fukushima than I am about a little bit of toasty bread (acrylamide).
Reports re Radiation at Fukushima are that there have been no deaths even to today (sorry, no citation on hand) due to leaked radiation. There were, however, 1200+ deaths due to the panic caused by the reporting of the event.
Worry free.
behead any baker who dare bake a bold crust from henceforth and banish in exile their families to North Korea or The Congo. Serves the little murders posing as bread bakers right:-)
No! we'll need them to prepare loaves, buns, pies and snacks for the crowds that will gather when the regulators and bureaucrats are drawn through the streets of Brussels on a hurdle, and at the place of execution are hanged, drawn and quartered to the cheers of the assembled multitudes.
Mal Cuit