Citation: Poteser, M.; Laguzzi, F.; Schettgen, T.; Vogel, N.; Weber, T.; Zimmermann, P.; Hahn, D.; Kolossa-Gehring, M.; Namorado, S.; Van Nieuwenhuyse, A.; et al. Time Trends of Acrylamide Exposure in Europe: Combined Analysis of Published Reports and Current HBM4EU Studies. Toxics 2022, 10, 481. https://doi.org/10.3390/ toxics10080481 Academic Editor: Giovanna Tranfo Received: 29 July 2022 Accepted: 13 August 2022 Published: 17 August 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). toxics Article Time Trends of Acrylamide Exposure in Europe: Combined Analysis of Published Reports and Current HBM4EU Studies Michael Poteser 1, * , Federica Laguzzi 2 , Thomas Schettgen 3 , Nina Vogel 4 , Till Weber 4 , Philipp Zimmermann 4 , Domenica Hahn 4 , Marike Kolossa-Gehring 4 , Sónia Namorado 5 , An Van Nieuwenhuyse 6 , Brice Appenzeller 7 , Thórhallur I. Halldórsson 8 , Ása Eiríksdóttir 9 , Line Småstuen Haug 10 , Cathrine Thomsen 10 , Fabio Barbone 11 , Valentina Rosolen 12 , Loïc Rambaud 13 , Margaux Riou 13 , Thomas Göen 14 , Stefanie Nübler 14 , Moritz Schäfer 14 , Karin Haji Abbas Zarrabi 14 , Liese Gilles 15 , Laura Rodriguez Martin 15 , Greet Schoeters 15 , Ovnair Sepai 16 , Eva Govarts 15 and Hanns Moshammer 1,17 1 Department of Environmental Health, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria 2 Unit of Cardiovascular and Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 13, Box 210, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden 3 Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, D-52074 Aachen, Germany 4 German Environment Agency (UBA), D-14195 Berlin, Germany 5 Department of Epidemiology, National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, 1649-016 Lisbon, Portugal 6 Laboratoire National de Santé (LNS), L-3555 Luxembourg, Luxembourg 7 Department of Precision Health, Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), L-4354 Luxembourg, Luxembourg 8 Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, 102 Reykjavik, Iceland 9 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Iceland, 107 Reykjavik, Iceland 10 Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Lovisenberggata 8, 0456 Oslo, Norway 11 Department of Medical Area, DAME, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy 12 Institute for Maternal and Child Health-IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, 34137 Trieste, Italy 13 Santé Publique France, French Public Health Agency (ANSP), 94415 Saint-Maurice, France 14 Institute and Outpatient Clinic of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Henkestraße 9-11, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany 15 VITO Health, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), 2400 Mol, Belgium 16 UK Health Security Agency, London SE1 8UG, UK 17 Department of Hygiene, Medical University of Karakalpakstan, Nukus 230100, Uzbekistan * Correspondence: michael.poteser@meduniwien.ac.at Abstract: More than 20 years ago, acrylamide was added to the list of potential carcinogens found in many common dietary products and tobacco smoke. Consequently, human biomonitoring studies investigating exposure to acrylamide in the form of adducts in blood and metabolites in urine have been performed to obtain data on the actual burden in different populations of the world and in Europe. Recognizing the related health risk, the European Commission responded with measures to curb the acrylamide content in food products. In 2017, a trans-European human biomonitoring project (HBM4EU) was started with the aim to investigate exposure to several chemicals, including acrylamide. Here we set out to provide a combined analysis of previous and current European acrylamide biomonitoring study results by harmonizing and integrating different data sources, including HBM4EU aligned studies, with the aim to resolve overall and current time trends of acrylamide exposure in Europe. Data from 10 European countries were included in the analysis, comprising more than 5500 individual samples (3214 children and teenagers, 2293 adults). We utilized linear models as well as a non-linear fit and breakpoint analysis to investigate trends in temporal acrylamide exposure as well as descriptive statistics and statistical tests to validate findings. Our results indicate an overall increase in acrylamide exposure between the years 2001 and 2017. Studies with samples collected after 2018 focusing on adults do not indicate increasing exposure but show declining values. Regional differences appear to affect absolute values, but not the overall time-trend of exposure. As benchmark levels for acrylamide content in food have been adopted in Toxics 2022, 10, 481. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics10080481 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/toxics