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FoodDrinkEurope updates industry-wide Toolbox to help manufacturers further mitigate Acrylamide

Date

04 Oct 2011

Sections

Health & Consumers
Agriculture & Food
Climate & Environment

The FoodDrinkEurope Acrylamide Toolbox has been successful in helping food companies identify the best ways to reduce Acrylamide in their products. FoodDrinkEurope has now updated the existing Toolbox to include the latest scientific research and feedback from food operators.

Significant progress has once again been made in the Industry Toolbox, demonstrating the full commitment of food and drink manufacturers to actively explore all of the possible ways to mitigate Acrylamide in their product categories. In fact, FoodDrinkEurope’s Acrylamide Toolbox can today be seen as a "global tool" providing companies with the latest findings and best practice on how to reduce Acrylamide formation,’’ commented Dr. Richard Stadler, Chairman of FoodDrinkEurope’s Process Contaminants Expert Group.

Key updates include:

•A restructuring of the Toolbox around the three main ingredient types commonly associated with the risk of higher Acrylamide formation, namely: potatoes, cereals and coffee.

•’Baby biscuits, infant cereals and baby foods other than cereal based foods’ now constitutes a separate category in the Acrylamide Toolbox.

•Clearer alignment with the Codex Alimentarius Code of Practice for the reduction of Acrylamide in Foods (CAC/RCP 67-2009), ensuring global alignment for food operators.

•The latest in scientific publications and updates on specific projects.

•A revised ‘Summary’ section which better describes the new structure of the Toolbox by Product Category as opposed to Toolbox Parameter.

•Improvements in the section on ‘Methods of Analysis and Sampling’ to better describe issues surrounding the measurement of uncertainty and to describe CEN standardisation work* on methods of analysis for Acrylamide in certain foodstuffs; and, finally,

•Text on the ALARA (‘as low as reasonably achievable’) concept.

The Acrylamide Toolbox is updated on a continuous basis as the science progresses and will be promoted to food and drink manufacturers at European and national level. The latest edition is available at: http://www.fooddrinkeurope.eu/publications/category/toolkits/

-ENDS-

For further information, contact:

Lisa McCooey, Communications Director

Tel.: +32 2 514 11 11, Mob.: +32 476 911 300

l.mccooey@fooddrinkeurope.eu

*CEN is the Committee for European Standardisation (Comité Européen de Normalisation) providing a standardisation framework to prepare voluntary standards that help to develop the Single European market for goods and services.

FoodDrinkEurope represents the food and drink industries of the EU – the largest manufacturing sector in the EU in terms of turnover and employment. FoodDrinkEurope’s mission is to represent the food and drink industries’ interests, at the level of European and international institutions, in order to contribute to the development of a legislative and economic framework addressing the competitiveness of industry, food quality and safety, consumer protection and respect for the environment. FoodDrinkEurope's membership is made up of 26 national federations, including 3 observers, 26 European sector associations and 19 major food and drink companies. For more information on FoodDrinkEurope and its activities, please visit: www.fooddrinkeurope.eu