Effects on Acrylamide Generation under Heating Conditions by Addition of Lysine and Cysteine to Non-centrifugal Cane Sugar

Abstract

We investigated the effects on acrylamide generation under heating conditions by addition of lysine and cysteine using non-centrifugal cane sugar (NCS) aqueous solutions as food models. The four NCS samples tested contained relatively high concentrations of acrylamide. Treating an aqueous solution of NCS at 100 °C for 60 min significantly increased the amount of acrylamide. We determined the concentrations of reducing sugar and free amino acids in the NCS samples and in NCS-related products and confirmed that all contained large amounts of reducing sugar and asparagine, which are major acrylamide reactants. Adding cysteine to an NCS solution suppressed the amount of acrylamide formed by heating at 100 °C for 60 min, whereas adding lysine promoted it. These amino acids dose-dependently affected acrylamide generation. Moreover, adding cysteine to NCS solutions suppressed the generation of acrylamide over a wide range of pH values. These findings suggest a method for preventing the generation of acrylamide during food processing.