Overview of Health Canada's Action Plan on Acrylamide

Bureau of Chemical Safety
Food Directorate
Health Product and Food Branch
Health Canada

In April 2002, the Swedish National Food Administration published analytical results indicating the presence of acrylamide in foods.

Since that discovery, Health Canada's Food Directorate, like many food standards organisations worldwide, has initiated an action plan to gather more information on the occurrence of acrylamide in foods and its effects on human health. Health Canada is committed to providing Canadians with regular updates on the status of findings on acrylamide generated through its own research and assessment programs or in collaboration with the international scientific community.

Health Canada's action plan on acrylamide in food addresses the following questions:

• What is the occurrence and levels of acrylamide in foods consumed by Canadians?
• How is acrylamide formed in food?
• What are the potential human health effects of acrylamide?
• Does the level of exposure to acrylamide through food consumption represent a possible risk to human health?
• What recommendations, if any, need to be communicated to the public and food manufacturers based on current findings?

Based on the latest results in data gathering at the national and international level, Health Canada is updating its action plan for 2005-2006 to target the following objectives:

• Generate further exposure data on acrylamide in foods by Health Canada's Food Directorate laboratories in Ottawa and Winnipeg. Sampling plans include Total Diet samples, baby foods, cereals and infant formula
• Investigate other pathways of formation in other food commodities, such as prune juice and olives, where the principal pathway previously identified cannot be used
• Follow-up on recent updates in the toxicology of acrylamide, including the review to be undertaken by the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants, and apply these to the human health risk assessment of acrylamide in food
• Collaborate with other national health organisations in the US and the EU, as well as with international organisations (FAO/WHO) by exchanging the information available on exposure, toxicology and risk assessment
• Communicate to consumers and the food industry, the latest research findings, the latest conclusions of international panels, and possible risk management options related to reducing the levels or mitigating the risk of acrylamide in food.

Regular updates on accomplishments and on the latest science-based information related to the presence of Acrylamide in Food will be made available on Health Canada's web pages.