Quantification of Acrylamide Content in Potato Chips and in Iraqi “Harissa”

Abstract

A simple, environmentally benign, sustainable, accurate and cost effective green approach has been developed for the determination of Acrylamide (2-propenamide) in different samples of potato chips collected from the Iraqi market during the year 2012 and a traditional Iraqi meal called Harissa. The method entails a straightforward de-fatting practice with n-hexane, extraction with lukewarm water, and cleanup with solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges containing the sorbent bed of the mixed mode ion exchangers (SiliaPrep C8/SCX-2/SAX). The final extracts are directly determined by liquid chromatography-Ultra violet (LC-UV) at a wavelength of 205nm for quantification.  The acrylamide content in the examined potato chips were in the range 339–1024 μg/kg, while for Harissa sample it was 235 μg/kg. The recoveries were in the range of 97.4 and 101.2% with relative standard deviations (RSD%) of about 4.1%. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) were 20 μg/kg and 50 μg/kg in the basis of signal to noise ratios of 3:1 and 9:1, respectively.  The green goal of the proposed method was accomplished by developing a procedure that uses minimal amounts of benign reagents and the avoidance of producing toxic residues. This method can be used for routine analysis of Acrylamide in any fatty food matrices.