California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) withdrew three proposed regulations regarding acrylamide warning labels on certain food products. Since their introduction to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) on April 8, 2005, the regulatory proposals elicited "voluminous comments," which OEHHA was unable to review in the one-year time frame allowed by law.
Acrylamide forms as a natural byproduct in some carbohydrate-rich foods when they are fried, baked or roasted at high temperatures. A carcinogen that has been shown to produce tumors in rats and mice in high doses, acrylamide has been on California's Proposition 65 list of chemicals since 1990. Last year, in response to research at the Swedish National Food Administration (NFA), OEHHA sought to amend Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations, Section 12601, to add provisions specific to warnings for acrylamide exposures from food.
The NFA findings, released in April 2002, stated that "fried, oven-baked and deep-fried potato products may contain high levels of acrylamide, which is a 'probable human carcinogen.'"
However, a 2004 government report noted that acrylamide does not lead to adverse reproductive or developmental risks in the general population (Journal of the American Medical Association; 292:425). Also, an FDA notice from March 3, 2005, "FDA Assesses New Report on Acrylamide," notes that "acrylamide can cause cancer in laboratory animals at high doses, although it is not clear whether it causes cancer at the much lower levels in food."
OEHHA intends to submit new proposed regulations to OAL within 60 days.
