While FDA issued a final guidance in 2016 detailing how processors and foodservice operators can reduce acrylamide in cooked and fried foods such as potatoes, it made no suggestions for screening out raw product with acrylamide precursors before the cooking process. Earlier this year, Britain’s Food Standards Agency issued warnings about eating burnt toast and over-fried potato products that may contain carcinogens such as acrylamide. Trouble is: Not all potatoes produce high levels of acrylamide in frying—and there hasn’t been a method to test raw potatoes in real time as they travel down the conveyor to the fryer.
That, however, has changed. Dr. Lien Smeesters, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Brussels on the B-PHOT Brussels Photonics Team and the recent winner of the Student Innovation Award at the Photonics Public Private Partnership Annual Meeting, focused laser-based photonics technology on the problem and has come up with a solution. In collaboration with Tomra Sorting Solutions, Smeesters has developed a new sensor that scans peeled potatoes, sorting out products that may cause high levels of the toxic acrylamide before the cooking process begins.