Topic started by Sathya (@ ool-18bfbabf.dyn.optonline.net) on Thu Jun 27 14:40:19 .
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Potentially cancer-causing acrylamides--compounds produced in the cooking of starchy foods like potato chips and French fries--pose a significant but still undetermined risk to consumers, a committee of public health experts quickly convened by the World Health Organization has concluded.

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• From: Sathya (@ ool-18bfbabf.dyn.optonline.net) on: Thu Jun 27 14:42:31
  
  By a Washington Post Staff Writer
  Thursday, June 27, 2002; 1:19 PM
  Acrylamides, which are used to produce plastics and dyes and to purify drinking water, have been found to be cancer-causing in rats, and listed by the WHO as a probable human carcinogen. But some scientists contest that conclusion, and say that animal studies reveal little about whether a substance will cause cancer in humans.
  Although traces of acrylamides have been long found in water, its presence at high levels in basic foods came as a shock. But because the foods found with significant levels are so widespread, and because so much remains unknown about the effect of acrylamides, researchers and government officials have been reluctant to advise consumers on the subject.
  The 25 health and food specialists were primarily from universities and food agencies in Europe, the United States and Japan. They were called to the special WHO meeting after researchers in Sweden found high levels of acrylamide in baked and fried starches including potatoes, breads and crackers. Government scientists in Britain and Norway have found similarly high levels in local foods, but with sometimes great variations in similar products.
  According to Dieter Arnold of Germany's Federal Institute for Health Protection of Consumers, who chaired the WHO meeting, there are many potentially cancer-causing agents found in food in addition to acrylamides. He said, for instance, that fried or grilled meat also produces a substance known to cause cancer in animals. But he said the concern over acrylamides was much higher because they are so much more common in human diets.
  Arnold said the group had difficulty coming to definitive conclusions, however, because the number of foods analyzed so far remained small at about 200, and because so little was known about how the chemical was formed during the cooking process.
  Researchers at the Food and Drug Administration, as well as some American companies, are also testing for acrylamides. The consumer group, Center for Science in the Public Interest, announced this week that researchers he had commissioned found high levels of acrylamides in some American products.
  Researchers believe that acrylamides have been formed through cooking for centuries. The Swedish results, announced earlier this year, were the first to conclude the levels were significantly higher than expected.
  Members of the committee, meeting in Geneva, said today that the scientific information they had reviewed convinced them unanimously that acrylamides were a "major concern," and they called on food processors to work on ways to reduce them in their products.
  But they also said that there was not enough information available to make recommendations about which foods consumers should eat, and which they should not.
  "The overriding thing the committee concluded is that, given that we know acrylamides are cancer-causing in animals and probably in humans, it is intolerable that they are in foods at the levels found and we have to find a remedy," said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the WHO. "But there is not enough information to make any consumer recommendations because we need more research."
  The WHO's Arnold was equally hesitant today. "On the information we have at the moment, we cannot give consumers very specific advice such as to avoid eating chips of this or that brand," he said.
  
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55617-2002Jun27.html
  
  
• From: Roland L. Coulombe (@ whiterockdistilleries.com) on: Tue Nov 5 10:15:34
  
  I'm looking for a receipy for filled cupcakes had one that was passed down from my grandmother but kind of missed placed it.Was wondering if anyone would know how.Thank You
  
  
• From: john (@ adsl-66-122-184-41.dsl.chic01.pacbell.net) on: Tue Jan 13 17:20:27
  
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