Assessment of acrylamide content in corn-based snack products marketed in Serbia

Corn-based snacks are important contributors to acrylamide daily exposure in European countries. Therefore, snacks (industrially produced) representing different product groups (corn chips, corn flakes, corn flips, popcorn, corn nut, corn cracker and corn cracker-bread) marketed in Serbia have been analyzed for acrylamide and color. Considering the addition of honey in some foodstuffs, the content of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in corn snacks has been determined and correlated with acrylamide content. Considerable variation in content of acrylamide between single foodstuffs (different brands) within food categories was found, which also applies to levels in different corn-based snack categories. The acrylamide content ranged from 1.9 to 799 ng/g in corn cracker-bread sample and corn nut bulk sample, respectively. With a mean value of 397 ng/g, popcorn samples exhibited the highest acrylamide content. These investigations showed that the content of acrylamide in about 37 % of the examined products was above the benchmark levels for whole-grain cereal-based food products defined in Regulation of the European Commission 2017/2158/EC. The results also showed that the color was not an indicator of acrylamide present in corn-based snacks, as well as that the content of HMF in the products was not correlated with the content of acrylamide (r = 0.019). The HMF content was highest in corn-based products with added sugars, honey, malt and molasses, such as corn flakes.