European Bakery Innovation Centre

Acrylamide is a substance formed from parts of protein and carbohydrates during baking, frying or toasting such as cookies, bread, chips and coffee. Since 2002 it is only known that this substance occurs in food and may cause danger to health. There is much of research done into ways to bring down the levels of acrylamide. Studies have shown that the risk to humans is relatively low.
For bread the risk will sharply reduce when letting the dough rise long enough (for example: more than 60 minutes). If there are still problems with the acrylamide content than there are also, next to the process conditions (lower baking temperature or frying), enzymes that significantly reduce the formation of acrylamide.