Warnings for potato chips and french fries?

by Deidre Woollard, Posted Aug 27th 2005 @ 10:11AM

Will french fries and potato chips come with a warning? On Friday, California attorney General Bill Lockyer sued fast-food restaurants and the makers of potato chip companies say that they failed to warn California residents about acrylamide a carcinogen that results when potatoes and other starchy foods are cooked at high temperatures. The lawsuit says the companies violate California's Prop. 65 which requires warnings when people are exposed to carcinogens. Lockyer wants to make it clear that he isn't warning people not to eat these foods, just that they should be informed. He's only targeted potato products even though traces of the substance can be found in a wide variety of foods from breakfast cereals to prune juice. Acrylamide, which is used industrially for treating sewage was placed on the Proposition 65 toxic chemical list in 1990 but it wasn't until 2002 that Swedish scientists discovered it is created smaller amounts when starchy foods are cooked. Is the warning justified? Potato product producers fear that the warnings will scare off consumers. Curious as to how much of the chemical is in your favorite food? You can head to the FDA for a list.

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Filed Under: Newspapers, Methods
Tags: frying, west coast

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-27-2005 @11:24AM Sir Not Appearing in this Blog said... Yay, here comes big government to save us from those evil fast food companies who just want to kill off their paying customers! Yaaaaay!

Something to consider: the amount of acrylamide needed to cause cancer is never mentioned, but we're supposed to live in fear of the spectre of cancer. There's not even any proof that acrylamide causes cancer in humans, but we're supposed to cower in fear.

And just for the record: EVERYTHING (even you) is made of chemicals. The word has a seriously negative connotation but at the molecular level, we're just hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and a bunch of other chemicals in a walking, talking form. Your brain CHEMISTRY requires chemicals for your neurons to send and receive signals. Your body CHEMISTRY requires chemicals to enable mitosis, osmosis and various other vital-for-life functions.
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8-28-2005 @3:37AM Steve Johnson said... The Cato Institute published an article by Steven Milloy back in 2002, that debunked the myths of acrylamide. He noted that while scientists tested this on laboratory rats, they gave the rats extremely large dosages of acrylamide. In comparison, it ended up equating to ingesting 182 pounds of french fries EACH DAY for a human.

http://www.cato.org/dailys/07-05-02.html
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8-28-2005 @12:29PM Sir Not Appearing in this Blog said... Yow! I love my pommes frites, but that's a bit much. Eating over half my body weight in fries, DAILY? I think I'd die of a burst stomach before the acrylamide could give me cancer.
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