Preliminary assessment of exposure of children and adolescents to acrylamide originating from food.

The objective of the tests was to make preliminary assessment of acrylamide intake from the diet in the category of children and adolescents falling into 7-18 age bracket. For the purposes of assessment the our analytical test results were used of acrylamide content in potato crisps and French fries in samples taken randomly from all over Poland, whereas the intake level was estimated on the basis of a 24-hour recalls leading by National Food and Nutrition Institute in 2000. In the population of consumers eating potato crisps and French fries the average intake of acrylamide in the population of children aged 7-13 amounted to 63.4 microg/person/day, meanwhile in adolescents population aged 14-18-- 69.5 microg/person/day. The conversion of rest results into kg of body mass showed that acrylamide intake in the children population aged 7-13 lat was 1.78 microg per kg of body mass, whereas the acrylamide intake in adolescents population aged 14-18 was 1.17 microg/kg of body mass. Due to disadvantageous health effect of acrylamide it is necessary to reduce the content of this compound in diet.