Concerns about acrylamide, an organic compound formed in foods when they are heavily browned or even burnt have been raised. The compound has worryingly been classified as a probable carcinogen. But acrylamide from cooked foods is very unlikely to be a cause of cancer in humans. Cancer Research UK stated that the notion that eating burnt food would cause cancer is deceived wisdom, a “myth”.
Anyway, for those who think the revelation that carcinogens are formed in the non-enzymic browning reaction known as the Maillard reaction is something new, take a look at the following article I wrote for New Scientist back in the day: Science: Cooking up carcinogens – The chemicals generated in our food, New Scientist vol 127 issue 1729 – 11 August 1990).
Chemical reactions that take place during cooking, baking and preserving generate products that are very important in giving different foods their distinctive aromas and colour. Recently, researchers have discovered that many of these products can reduce the food’s nutritional value, and some can actually be toxic.
Franze Ledl of Stuttgart University and Erwin Schleicher of the academic hospital Munich-Schwabing in West Germany have studied many of the reactions involved, which are known collectively as the Maillard reaction. They believe that the reaction products could cause some diseases, including certain forms of cancer (Angewandte Chemie, International Edition in English, 1990, vol 29, p 565).