Study links carcinogen to potato chips, fries

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Potato chips, french fries and other high-carbohydrate foods contain a substance that may cause cancer, according to a study released Wednesday by Swedish food authorities.

The substance, called acrylamide, forms in varying levels when carbohydrates are heated in a certain way, such as by frying potatoes or baking bread, researchers said.

“The discovery that acrylamide is formed during the preparation of food … is new knowledge,” Leif Busk, chief researcher at the National Food Administration, told a news conference. “It may now be possible to explain some of the cases of cancer caused by food.”

The governmental agency, following up on research by a group of scientists at Stockholm University, studied more than 100 foods bought in Swedish stores and restaurants and determined that “fried, oven-baked and deep-fried potato and cereal products may contain high levels of acrylamide.”

The agent has been classified as a “probable human carcinogen,” in food, but experts not involved with the study cautioned that no link to cancer had been confirmed.