Cancer risk and disease burden of dietary acrylamide exposure in China, 2016

Background: Acrylamide is widely found in food as a side-product of high-temperature heating of starch-rich food. It has attracted much attention because of its neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity. However, the cancer risk and disease burden of dietary acrylamide exposure have not been quantified in China. Objective: To estimate the cancer risk and the disease burden attributable to dietary acrylamide exposure and quantify its health hazards. Method: We first performed an exposure assessment of acrylamide in food, based on which the incremental excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) was calculated for cancer risk assessment. The DisMod II software and the DALY calculator in R were used to calculate the disease burden due to dietary acrylamide exposure. Results: Average dietary acrylamide exposure in males was 0.1531 mu g center dot kg- 1 center dot d-1 and that in females was 0.1554 mu g center dot kg- 1 center dot d-1, resulting in an ELCR of 7.81 x 10-5 for males and 7.92 x 10-5 for females in China. The dietary acrylamide exposure resulted in about 23,688.09 DALYs of cancers among the Chinese population in 2016, including 1331.93 DALYs of breast cancer, 243.32 DALYs of endometrial cancer, 248.91 DALYs of ovarian cancer, and 176.28 DALYs of kidney cancer, respectively. Conclusion: The health hazards of dietary acrylamide exposure deserve attention. The burden of disease assessment could quantify the health hazards of food contaminants for prioritizing policies.

Automated summary

This study assessed the exposure to acrylamide in Chinese food and the associated cancer risk and disease burden. The results showed that acrylamide exposure resulted in approximately 23688.09 DALYs of cancer burden among the Chinese population. This highlights the health risks posed by dietary acrylamide exposure and the importance of policy prioritization.