Acrylamide dietary intake in a sample of Italian subjects

Introduction: Acrylamide (AA) is a process contaminant classified as probably carcinogenic to humans. Foods prone to AA formation are those containing reducing sugars and asparagine, that undergo high-temperature and low-moisture processing. In 2015 EFSA published a wide-ranging database on AA content in commonly consumed foods. However, since food composition data should be as country-specific as possible, national data should also be considered when estimating AA intake. Objectives: to assess AA intake in healthy subjects from the control group of an Italian case-control study on colorectal cancer risk by integrating AA in the food composition database (based on bda.ieo.it). Methods: Data on AA were collected from EFSA and 11 Italian scientific papers and matched at the ingredient/recipe level to the 81 items of the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) used to assess the habitual diet in the case-control study (Milan, 2017–2019). Then, AA intake in the 100 healthy controls as well as major dietary sources of AA were estimated considering weekly consumption frequencies and portion sizes. Results: In the food composition database, 28 FFQ foods/ingredients were matched to EFSA data; seven (pizza, cookies, white/wholegrain bread, croissant, frolla cake, prunes) to Italian data from three methodologically comparable studies; and four to proportionally adjusted Italian data. Other foods were matched to logical zero or trace values when processing conditions could not be clearly determined. Among healthy controls (age: 66.0±11.8 years), AA intake ranged from 11.9 to 64.6 µg/day (mean: 36.9±11.1 µg/day, median: 35.8 µg/day). Females (38% of the sample) had slightly higher intakes than males (37.8±11.8 vs. 36.4±10.7 µg/day). The main contributors of AA intake were pizza (20.9%), coffee (12.6%), cookies (12.1%), fried/baked potatoes (10.4%) and bread (7.4%). Conclusions: AA intake was higher than that reported in previous studies in Italian healthy controls (1991–2008). The high AA contribution of pizza can be explained by its high frequency of consumption in the current sample, but also by the very high content of AA matched from Italian data. Without considering Italian food composition data, AA intakes would probably have been underestimated. This confirms the importance of comprehensive, fit-for-purpose food composition databases for reliable intake estimates.