Work

Mechanism-guided mitigation of acrylamide in thermally processed foods: emerging technologies and analytical verification

Year: 2026

Type: review

Abstract: Acrylamide (AA) forms mainly from free asparagine and reducing sugars during high-temperature food processing. Experimental evidence of AA neurotoxicity and glycidamide-mediated genotoxicity supports mitigation, although the association between dietary AA exposure and human cancer remains inconclusive. This narrative review evaluates how formation mechanisms and matrix-specific constraints should guide AA mitigation and how reported reductions should be verified. The evidence indicates that effectiveness is constrained by precursor accessibility and mass transfer, enzyme-substrate contact, and the thermal-moisture history of the complete process. Pulsed electric fields and ultrasound may mobilize precursors, but lowering their availability requires effective aqueous removal; high-pressure processing may improve enzyme access, while vacuum and alternative heating alter thermal exposure and moisture removal. Direct AA evidence for cold atmospheric plasma remains specific to tested food and discharge conditions, whereas plasma-activated water is not yet established as an AA-control operation. Reported percentage reductions cannot rank technologies across different matrices, processing sequences, and final-product states; likewise, combined-treatment effects do not establish synergy without matched comparisons of individual and combined operations. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry provides confirmatory AA quantification, whereas rapid assays and spectroscopic techniques are better suited to screening and process monitoring. This review therefore frames AA control as a matrix-specific process-design problem in which operations with distinct mechanistic targets are selected and their incremental effects are assessed through direct AA quantification under matched final-product conditions for moisture, color, and texture.

Source: Frontiers in Nutrition

DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2026.1981497