Are We Ready to Fret About Our Fries?

For example, to avoid the warnings, most china makers removed lead from their tableware when targeted by state authorities. Facing a similar threat, the manufacturer of Preparation H hemorrhoidal medicine found a way to make it without mercury, benefiting not only state residents, but consumers nationwide. French fries, Roe argued, are no different, and their manufacturers would surely find a way to make them more healthful if pressed to do so.

Scientists agree that acrylamide causes cancerous tumors and nervous system damage in laboratory animals that are fed large doses of the chemical. Many believe that it may also be harmful to humans -- which is why acrylamide levels in drinking water are tightly restricted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Now that it has been widely detected in food, some environmental health experts believe that acrylamide might help explain high rates of human cancers suspected to stem from dietary causes. But there is still no clear scientific consensus that acrylamide poses any danger to human beings at the relatively low levels found in food.

A 1999 occupational health study of 8,508 workers who may have been exposed to acrylamide at three industrial plants found slightly higher rates of pancreatic cancer. Several more recent dietary studies comparing cancer rates and consumption of French fries and other acrylamide-heavy foods detected no correlation.

"There is a lot we don't know about acrylamide, and there are a lot of questions with these risk assessment models," said Lorelei Mucci, an instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health who wrote some of the dietary studies. "A lot of the information so far comes from animal data. A lot of the animals were exposed to 50,000 micrograms, where people on average are only exposed to about 35 micrograms a day through food."

Swiss studies have shown that some alternative French-frying techniques produced less acrylamide, giving health officials hope that the problem could be overcome. Food industry representatives doubt that it can be eliminated, however, noting that the very act of heating many foods seems to unleash acrylamide.

"You have to fry French fries. You have to bake breads. In Western cultures, you toast cereals. The Japanese make a kind of tea from toasted barley, and when you toast it, you form acrylamide," said Henry Chin, vice president of laboratories for the National Food Processors Assn. "In a sense, it is unavoidable to make the food edible."