Acrylamide mitigation in processed potato derivatives by addition of natural phenols from olive chain by-products

In order to find innovative protocols to reduce acrylamide (AA), a genotoxin and a probable carcinogen, in foods, several phenolic compounds were considered as additives to a potato derivative. Phenols are obtained from the by-products of the olive production chain. Potato flakes were kneaded with water containing different concentrations of a single phenol: tyrosol (Ty), hydroxytyrosol (HTy), tyrosyl acetate (TyAc), hydroxytyrosyl acetate (HTyAc), caffeic acid and oleuropein. After a cooking step at 175 °C for 4 min, AA was extracted, derivatized with xanthydrol and quantified by GC–MS. The results obtained for Ty, HTy, caffeic acid and oleuropein showed AA reduction ranging from 29 % to 47 %, whereas with TyAc and HTyAc the mitigation effect was noticeably stronger (90 and 75 %). The less polar molecule, TyAc, showed the best inhibition performance. These preliminary results show that phenolic compounds from olive by-products could also be valorized as food starchy additives.