Response from Kettle Foods

[Guest guest]

I was interested and upset reading the Sally F. email where she withdrew her

support of Kettle Foods potato chips (originally okayed on WAPF's shopping

guide) because of the high level acrylamides found there. I mean, I knew that

eating packaged potato chips was not the best snack choice in the world, but

cancer causing? ARG! So I wrote to the company and here is the email reply I

got. What do you think?

PS: I did not vote in their straight-up-flavor drink suggestion survey. lol

Hello Hoa:

Thanks for your inquiry regarding acrylamide. Here is what we know:

The discovery of acrylamide in food is very new and international health

organizations are still learning about it.

Acrylamide is apparently a chemical that occurs naturally in many foods when

they're cooked. It's not an additive; it's a naturally occurring substance.

Scientists believe acrylamide has probably been around ever since people started

cooking food thousands of years ago.

In 2002, scientists discovered that acrylamide occurs naturally in a broad range

of cooked food, including bread, French fries, coffee, broccoli, crackers,

potato chips and cereals.

Since acrylamide occurs naturally in many foods, a lot of organizations around

the world have been studying it. Those groups include the United Nations Food

and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). So

far results have been inconclusive as to the effects on humans.

As a result, no international guidelines on the substance exist at this time.

While both the WHO and FAO have studied acrylamide, they haven't found enough

evidence to recommend avoiding specific food products. Instead the World Health

Organization reinforces its general advice of healthy eating, including

moderating consumption of fried and fatty foods. We've always agreed with those

recommendations.

Kettle Foods has deep roots in the natural food industry with a long history of

using only the finest natural ingredients and avoiding " stuff " - additives like

MSG, trans fats, artificial flavors or colors. Acrylamide is not an ingredient,

but a naturally occurring substance. Test results on products vary with each

test.

As a company committed to the health of our product, we are actively monitoring

all studies as well as conducting our own research to learn more about

acrylamide. We encourage you to explore this issue more to understand the full

breadth. Reported levels of acrylamide in foods seem to vary from test to test.

We have listed some informational websites below in case you would like more

information about acrylamide:

www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/pestadd.html#acrylamide

www.who.int/foodsafety/chem/chemicals/acrylamide/en/

www.acrylamide-food.org/

www.ific.org/publications/qa/acrylamideqa.cfm

Janet

Public Affairs

Kettle Foods

jwilson@...

Help us choose a new drink-inspired flavor! Go to www.straightupflavor.com and

let us know your idea!

[Guest guest]

Hoa-

>>Scientists believe acrylamide has probably been around ever since

>>people started

>>cooking food thousands of years ago.

I've read that some people believe acrylamide is forming during

cooking as a result of pesticides and other chemicals applied to

plants during growth, in which case that wouldn't be true, but I

don't know for sure whether this is so.

-

[Guest guest]

On 11/18/05, Idol <Idol@...> wrote:

> Hoa-

>

> >>Scientists believe acrylamide has probably been around ever since

> >>people started

> >>cooking food thousands of years ago.

>

> I've read that some people believe acrylamide is forming during

> cooking as a result of pesticides and other chemicals applied to

> plants during growth, in which case that wouldn't be true, but I

> don't know for sure whether this is so.

What I've read has given me the impression that it is well-established

that acrylamide forms from a reaction between glucose, fructose, or

sucrose, and the amino acid asparagine at certain temperatures. This

reaction has been well-defined. Since some of the organic foods have

the highest levels, I doubt the above explanation is correct.

Chris

--

Dioxins in Animal Foods:

A Case For Vegetarianism?

Find Out the Truth:

http://www.westonaprice.org/envtoxins/dioxins.html