Fried potatoes with oil and salt, potatoes with garlic and parsley, potatoes flavored with ham… The combinations available on the market today seem endless, however, they all agree that they contain acrylamide, a substance that the International Cancer Agency considers toxic and probably carcinogenic, and found in foods rich in carbohydrates that are subjected to temperatures of more than 120ºC.
A team of researchers from the University of Alicante (UA) has carried out pioneering research in which they have managed to reduce the presence of this substance in French fries in olive oil by adding compounds of essential oils of thyme and clove.
The study researchers observed that by encapsulating these chemicals in cyclodextrin, the presence of acrylamide was considerably reduced, without altering the flavor of the potato chip.
Acrylamide is produced with the Maillard reaction, which gives the color and toasted flavor to potatoes when they are fried, but also when toasting bread or cooking meat. Likewise, it leaves particles in the air that make this substance not only harmful to health when taking these products, but also when smelling them.
The amount of acrylamide that can be reduced when potatoes are fried depends on the type of oil used for frying as well as the variety of potato, clarified Borja Fernández, one of the authors of the project, at a conference organized by the UA. .
The application of the results of this research in the future is still uncertain, but Fernández hopes that they can be used, above all, in the industrial production of these foods, both to guarantee the safety of the consumer and that of the worker himself.
