Are We Ready to Fret About Our Fries?
Golden, greasy and oh-so good, French fries are the guilty staple of the American diet. But in California, a strict right-to-know law could soon force fast-food restaurants to tell customers that the ubiquitous fries may pack something worse than fat and cholesterol: a potential carcinogen.
Health officials from Europe to Asia have wrestled with how to warn the public ever since Swedish scientists discovered that French fries contained acrylamide, a chemical known to cause cancer in laboratory rats.
Scientists don't want to stir up a super-sized food scare that might later prove unwarranted. Yet, they are alarmed by tests that are finding acrylamide in hundreds of cooked foods -- from bread and potato chips to almonds and coffee.
The dilemma is heightened in California, where voter-approved Proposition 65 is supposed to trigger public notices on substances "known to the state to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm." State officials deemed acrylamide such a substance in 1990, long before it was found in food. At the time, it was known mainly as a chemical useful in treating sewage water. Concerns about human exposure were minor.
Now that it has been discovered in the food supply, California scientists are reassessing the risks of acrylamide. The attorney general's office has urged caution, saying too little is known about the dangers to people.
Nonetheless, private attorneys have filed a flurry of lawsuits, alleging that food vendors from McDonald's and Burger King to KFC and Wendy's should be warning the public about acrylamide. If the lawyers prevail, California could end up with warnings in countless restaurants and grocery stores saying that French fries and other foods with acrylamide might cause cancer.
"You know the thick paper containers in which they give you fries over the counter, where McDonald's has the arches and the pictures of Ronald McDonald? To me, the warnings should be right there," said Raphael Metzger, a Long Beach lawyer who sued McDonald's and Burger King. The lawsuit is pending in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Since the discovery of acrylamide in food two years ago, researchers around the world have detected it in dozens of dishes. By some estimates, it might be present in as much as 40% of the food people eat. But it is particularly prevalent in starchy foods such as potato chips and French fries, which are so popular that the average American gulps down 28 pounds a year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
