Determination of acrylamide level in commercial baby foods and an assessment of infant dietary exposure

Acrylamide is a monomer that can form in heated starchy food as a result of Maillard reaction. The adverse effects of acrylamide in humans are neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity. Aim of our study was to determine acrylamide levels in the main categories of commercially made Polish baby food products and to assess the dietary acrylamide exposure of infants aged 6–12 months. Acrylamide content in baby food products was analysed by GCQ–MS/MS and LC–MS/MS methods. The exposure assessment was carried out using analytical data and recommended daily consumption of food in individual months of infant life. The infant exposure was estimated at three levels: minimum, average and maximum. The mean content of acrylamide in the baby foods ranged from 2 to 516 μg/kg depending on the food product. The exposure of infants aged 6–12 months of life was estimated at the minimum level in the range from 0.41 to 0.62 μg/kg b.w./day, and at the average level – from 2.10 to 4.32 μg/kg b.w./day. For the worst case scenario the exposure ranged from 7.47 to 12.35 μg/kg b.w./day and was more than a dozen times and even several dozen times higher than the exposure estimated for the total Polish population.