Exposure to acrylamide from home-cooked food: fried potatoes (rösti) in Switzerland as an example.

There is a significant lack of data on acrylamide in food which is prepared domestically, as obtaining samples of food cooked in people's homes is more complex than taking samples from shops. Rösti is a fried potato dish, which can be a significant contributor to acrylamide exposure, particularly in the German speaking areas of Switzerland. A set of 71 samples was collected from people who cooked the dish at home. The average acrylamide content was 709 µg/kg. Based on a food frequency questionnaire and on a Swiss national food survey the results enabled the determination of the exposure of the population to acrylamide through home-made rösti. The values for an exposure estimate to acrylamide from rösti are 7.8 µg/day for the whole population (including rösti eaters and non-eaters) and 27.2 µg/day for predominantly rösti consumers participating in this study.

Survey on plasticizers currently found in PVC toys on the Swiss market: Banned phthalates are only a minor concern.

Plasticizers in toys are a recurring source of criticism and concern, as consumers feel they may endanger the health of their children. Most of the information available in literature concerns the presence or absence of certain phthalic acid ester plasticizers. Very little information can be found in the public domain with respect to the actually used plasticizers at a given time and place. In this paper, we present the plasticizer composition of 118 samples from 88 polyvinyl chloride toys found on the Swiss market in autumn 2015. Bis(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate (DEHT) was by far the most frequent main plasticizer in the analyzed samples, which is a change when compared to the plasticizers found in toys and child care articles in 2007. Furthermore, the data show that the banned phthalates in toys are only a minor concern. The occurrence, however, is not evenly distributed between importers. If a toy is not designed to be sold on the European market by the manufacturer, it seems to be more likely to contain a banned phthalic acid ester.

Acrylamide in a fried potato dish (rösti) from restaurants in Zurich, Switzerland.

Rösti, a fried potato product, is a large contributor to acrylamide exposure locally in Switzerland. A survey of 55 dishes prepared by 51 restaurants in the city of Zurich showed that the average rösti contained 702 µg/kg acrylamide. By analysing the content of reducing sugars in the potatoes used for frying, it is shown that with simple measures, the exposure to acrylamide could easily be reduced by factor 2 or more, while even improving the culinary experience. Though rösti is a typical dish in the German-speaking areas in Switzerland, the result may be of general interest for fried potato products which are popular in large areas of Central Europe.