Acrylamide in coffee: What is known and what still needs to be explored. A review. (1st November 2022) - Strocchi, Giulia
Highlights: Acrylamide (AA) concentration in coffee brews depends on a number of factors. Control of precursors underestimates origins and post-harvest processing. Roasting is the major responsible of AA formation. Synergic approaches are necessary to decrease AA in function of the final product. Efforts to reduce AA must also consider composition of the brews, industrial feasibility and sustainability. Abstract: Acrylamide (AA) is a product of food heating process that is widely present in cooked foods and known to be toxic to humans. Exposure data has revealed coffee to be one of the sources of this toxicant in adult diets. A great deal of effort has been invested into finding ways of reducing AA formation during coffee processing. However, despite the accumulated knowledge and mitigation strategies applied so far, AA reduction in coffee is still a challenge compared to other heat-processed foods in which the wider raw-material selection and progress in technological processes and/or changes in the recipes are possible at the industrial level. This review presents a critical analysis of the accumulated knowledge on the formation of AA in coffee as well as on the mitigation strategies that have been investigated to date, with a focus on current applicability in industry and little explored topics.