FoodDrinkEurope Promotes Progress in Actions to Mitigate Acrylamide

As the trade body representing the interests of food and drink manufacturers at the EU level, FoodDrinkEurope produced these pamphlets, which include the recent additions to the Toolbox by working in close collaboration with the European Commission and national regulatory authorities.

5 June 2012 --- FoodDrinkEurope has published five revised pamphlets setting out the latest tools to help Europe’s food and drink sectors mitigate Acrylamide formation in certain food products.

As the trade body representing the interests of food and drink manufacturers at the EU level, FoodDrinkEurope produced these pamphlets, which include the recent additions to the Toolbox by working in close collaboration with the European Commission and national regulatory authorities.

The pamphlets cover five food sectors:

• Biscuits;

• Crackers and crisp breads;

• Bread products;

• Breakfast cereals; and

• Fried potato products (such as potato crisps and French fries).

The pamphlets are readily available in 23 European languages on the FoodDrinkEurope website and also on that of the European Commission.

Principle updates to the pamphlets include:

• The introduction of information on the ‘ALARA‘ principle (‘as low as reasonably achievable’) with regard to levels of Acrylamide in foods;

• An improved structure and more user-friendly pamphlets;

• The introduction of new mitigation tools which have proven successful on an industrial scaleThe organisation’s food sector members have organised training sessions for industry and especially for SMEs.

The pamphlets, which were first published in 2007, are targeted at small and medium-sized food and drink companies. This is really important given that European SMEs often do not have the resources to access the latest findings in research, and as such, the pamphlets help to meet SMEs’ needs by allowing small operators to tap into the latest research findings and tools on how to reduce Acrylamide formation in their products and adapt their own production systems to help mitigate the effects of Acrylamide as much as possible.

Speaking following publication of the updated pamphlets, Jesús Serafín Pérez, President of FoodDrinkEurope, said: “FoodDrinkEurope plays a key role in supporting members to help reduce Acrylamide in manufacturing. The organization originally formed an expert group in 2003 to share research and disseminate information on how best to mitigate Acrylamide levels in food. The group first created the ’Acrylamide Toolbox’, a resource that provides operators with the latest findings and best practice needed to reduce Acrylamide in foods. This Toolbox was last updated in September 2011 and will be continually updated as the science progresses”.