By Lauran Neergaard

In addition to fried and starchy foods, acrylamide has been found in roasted asparagus and banana chips.

Scientists have found a clue to the chemical reaction that may cause potato chips, french fries and other fried or baked starchy foods to build up high levels of a possible cancer-causing substance.

The suspect is asparagine, a naturally occurring amino acid that, when heated with certain sugars such as glucose, leads to the formation of the worrisome substance acrylamide.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has made studying acrylamide's risk and determining how to lower its levels in food one of its highest research priorities, according to a plan that agency officials were to discuss Monday with consumer groups and food manufacturers.

Canada's government made the discovery about the suspect chemical reaction and has ordered food manufacturers to look for ways to alter it and thus lower levels of acrylamide in food. Cincinnati-based manufacturer Procter & Gamble Co. says its scientists, too, have found the asparagine connection.

It is the first clue to emerge in the mystery of acrylamide since Swedish scientists made the surprise announcement in the spring that high levels of the possible carcinogen are in numerous everyday foods: french fries, potato chips, some types of breakfast cereals and breads - plenty of high-carbohydrate foods that are fried or baked at high temperatures. The chemical was not found in boiled foods, which are cooked at lower temperatures.

Sweden's findings were confirmed in June by governments in Norway, Britain and Switzerland, and preliminary testing of several hundred foods by the FDA suggests U.S. foods contain similar acrylamide levels, said Richard Canady, who is directing the agency's assessment of acrylamide's risk.

Acrylamide is used to produce plastics and dyes and to purify drinking water. Although traces have been found in water, no one expected high levels to be in basic foods.

It causes cancer in test animals, but it has not been proved to do so in people. Still, Swedish scientists have said the levels are high enough that foodborne acrylamide might be responsible for several hundred cases of cancer in that country each year.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set in motion a plan to identify how the chemical acrylamide is getting into food and what can be done to reduce or eliminate it, since it can cause cancer, neurological damage and infertility. The FDA plans over the next year to conduct research and form a consensus with international scientists on how to eliminate acrylamide,

The food industry stresses that while fried potato products are getting most of the bad publicity - most testing so far shows the highest levels in them - acrylamide is in a wide variety of foods. Procter & Gamble said Friday that its testing found acrylamide in such previously unimplicated foods as roasted asparagus and banana chips.

CNN September 29, 2002

Dr. Mercola's Comments: How can anyone expect to be in good, much less excellent, health if they routinely eat highly processed carbohydrates? Potatoes are bad enough when consumed in their raw state, as their simple sugars are rapidly converted to glucose that raises insulin levels and can devastate your health. But when they are cooked in trans-fat at high temperatures, all sorts of interesting and very unpleasant things occur. That acrylamide develops in such foods makes perfect sense and should have been anticipated. But I am sure there are many more surprises produced in these foods that seriously damage health and lead to the development of chronic degenerative disease. 90% of the money Americans spend on food goes toward processed foods. This is one of the major physical reasons for most human health problems. When I consult with new patients, one of my primary roles is to guide them toward consuming more unprocessed foods. Ideally, over 50% and up to 90% of the human diet should be uncooked or raw food. My diet is probably about 80% raw food when I am at home. Related Articles: More Reports Confirm Carcinogen in Snack Chips and French Fries New Research Supports the Link Between Cooking and Cancer Link Seen Between Cooking and Cancer More on Cancer Chemical in Cooked Food