Exposure to Acrylamide in the Sixth Total Diet Study — China, 2016–2019

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS TOPIC? Acrylamide (AA) is toxic and potentially carcinogenic and could be formed during the cooking process. It is understood that almost all foods cooked at high temperature contain AA, especially fried foods. The exposure of AA in food threatens human health. WHAT IS ADDED BY THIS REPORT? In the Sixth China Total Diet Study (TDS), AA was detected in 73.3% samples of the 12 food categories with the concentrations ranging from undetected to 176.90 μg/kg. The average dietary intake of AA was 0.175 µg/kg body weight per day and a significant decrease (45.1%) was observed compared with the Fifth China TDS. Among the 12 food categories, vegetables (59.0%), cereals (18.9%), and potatoes (10.1%) were the main contributors to AA exposure at 88.0%. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE? This study highlighted the need to continuously monitor dietary acrylamide exposure in China, including changing food processing methods and making reasonable selection of foodstuffs in the daily diet.