Effects of variety, agronomic factors, and drying on the amount of free asparagine and crude protein in chicory. Correlation with the acrylamide formation during roasting Grégory Loaëc a , Céline Niquet-Léridon a , Nicolas Henry b , Philippe Jacolot a , Grégoire Volpoet c , Ellen Goudemand b , Myriam Janssens c , Philippe Hance d , Thierry Cadalen d , Jean-Louis Hilbert d , Bruno Desprez b , Frédéric J. Tessier a, ⁎ a Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais, EGEAL unit, 19 rue Pierre Waguet, 60026 Beauvais, France b Florimond-Desprez, 3 Rue Florimond Desprez, 59242 Cappelle-en-Pévèle, France c Leroux SAS, 84 rue François Herbo, 59310 Orchies, France d UMR USTL/INRA1281 SADV unit, GIS GENOCHIC, IFR147, Bâtiment SN2, Université Lille1, Sciences et Technologies, 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France abstract article info Article history: Received 13 December 2013 Received in revised form 31 January 2014 Accepted 4 March 2014 Available online xxxx Keywords: Acrylamide Mitigation Asparagine Coffee substitutes Chicory Fertilizer Most thermally processed foods are affected by the Maillard reaction which leads to the formation of not only desired flavor and aroma compounds but also neoformed contaminants with probable unwanted biological effects. Among the latter, acrylamide was found to be formed from free asparagine in plant foods such as potatoes, cereals and coffee. Roasted chicory which is used as a common coffee substitute is also known to be high in acrylamide and indicative values have been proposed for this food category by the European Commission. The current study is aimed at understanding the impact of varietal selection and agronomic practices on the concentration of free asparagine, a major acrylamide precursor, in chicory roots, and the effect of these parameters on the amount of acrylamide in roasted chicory. The study showed that the concentration of free asparagine in raw chicory roots was variety- and year-dependent (from 444 to 2786 mg/kg). All five varieties tested showed an increase in free asparagine level in response to increased nitrogen application. The duration of chicory cultivation and the date of harvest had limited effects which need to be further understood. The drying process reduced free asparagine concentration in chicory roots without generating acrylamide. Overall the reduction of free asparagine in the raw chicory roots tested in this study led to a significant decrease in acrylamide formation in the roasted chicory (from 11097 to 2249 μg/kg). This positive correlation does not exclude the possibility that other factors such as those related to roasting conditions could be involved in the acrylamide formation. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction In 2002, the discovery by the Swedish National Food Administra- tion of the presence of acrylamide at various levels in cooked foods led to an important study to investigate the origin of this conta- minant and its possible adverse health effects (Swedish National Food Administration, 2002; Tareke, Rydberg, Karlsson, Eriksson, & Törnqvist, 2002). Despite an ongoing debate about a possible association between the acrylamide intake from food and the risk of pathologies (Lipworth, Sonderman, Tarone, & McLaughlin, 2012) the safety of the food products in question is still a matter of concern. In the absence of a firm conclusion different committees of experts have recommended a reduction in the dietary exposure to acrylam- ide, and encouraged the food producers to lower acrylamide levels as low as reasonably achievable (JECFA, 2005). The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has also published indicative levels for acrylamide in the most relevant food categories (EFSA, 2012). These levels which are neither regulatory limits nor safety thresholds are values which can act only as a guide to investigating methods for the mitigation of acrylamide levels. They have been revised recently (EFSA, 2012) and, in addition to the 10 food categories already listed, new indicative values have been set for the category called “coffee substitutes” (CSs) (2000 μg/kg for coffee substitutes mainly based on cereals and 4000 μg/kg for other substitutes such as roasted chicory). Based on a European monitoring report the higher middle bound mean Food Research International xxx (2014) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.:+33 3 44 06 38 51; fax: +33 3 44 06 25 26. E-mail addresses: gregory.loaec@lasalle-beauvais.fr (G. Loaëc), celine.leridon@lasalle-beauvais.fr (C. Niquet-Léridon), nicolas.henry@florimond-desprez.fr (N. Henry), philippe.jacolot@lasalle-beauvais.fr (P. Jacolot), gvolpoet@leroux.fr (G. Volpoet), ellen.goudemand@florimond-desprez.fr (E. Goudemand), mjanssens@leroux.fr (M. Janssens), philippe.hance@univ-lille1.fr (P. Hance), thierry.cadalen@univ-lille1.fr (T. Cadalen), jean-louis.hilbert@univ-lille1.fr (J.-L. Hilbert), bruno.desprez@florimond-desprez.fr (B. Desprez), frederic.tessier@lasalle-beauvais.fr (F.J. Tessier). FRIN-05126; No of Pages 7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2014.03.010 0963-9969/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Research International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodres Please cite this article as: Loaëc, G., et al., Effects of variety, agronomic factors, and drying on the amount of free asparagine and crude protein in chicory. Correlation with ..., Food Research International (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2014.03.010