GENEVA, March 4 -- The World Health Organization said Friday that people should eat less food containing acrylamide, a chemical associated with fried foods that has caused cancer in laboratory rats.
WHO called on governments to urge the food industry to "lower significantly" the acrylamide content in foods such as french fries, potato chips, coffee and grain-based products including bread.
Studies by Swedish scientists in 2002 first drew attention to potential risks posed by acrylamide, which can form at high temperatures during frying, roasting or baking. At the time, the U.N. health agency called for more research after other studies suggested people did not eat enough of the chemical in their daily diet to pose a significant risk.
After the latest meeting of a committee of experts, WHO said there might be cause for concern but it could be several more years before the situation is fully clear.
"Consumption of foods with this contaminant at current levels of occurrence may be a public health concern," it said in a statement posted on its Web site. "This conclusion was based on a conservative evaluation, according to the committee, which noted that there is still considerable uncertainty about the mechanism of the toxicity of acrylamide."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was reviewing the WHO report and plans to release new data this spring on acrylamide levels in Americans' diet.
Because amounts can vary dramatically in the same foods, depending on factors such as cooking temperature and time, it was impossible to issue recommendations about how much of a specific food is safe to eat, WHO said.
