Brussels-based consumer watchdog group Safe Food Advocacy Europe (SAFE) recently published a position paper calling upon the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to set legally binding limits for contaminant acrylamide in foods, and is launching an awareness campaign to bring the issue of acrylamide into the public eye and onto the political agenda.

According to EFSA, acrylamide may be neurotoxic, genotoxic, carcinogenic, and damaging to reproductive and developmental health. Studies have also linked the contaminant to specific cancers, such as breast cancer. Although the European Commission acknowledged the need to set maximum limits for acrylamide in certain foods in EU Regulation 2017/2158, such levels have not yet been established.