Are You Making This Dangerous Mistake With Your Potatoes?

The instructions on the bag usually advise storing in a 'cool dark place', but many of us pop our potatoes in the refrigerator with the rest of the vegetables. Now however, experts are warning that this could be a dangerous mistake. According to the Food Standards Agency, keeping potatoes very cold causes the starch they contain to turn into sugar at a much faster rate. These sugars then mix with the amino acid asparagine, which occurs naturally in spuds, during cooking to produce the chemical acrylamide. Here's the rather scary science bit: Acrylamide is an industrial chemical that has been detected in a wide range of foodstuffs at relatively high concentrations. It is formed during frying, roasting or baking. According to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, food scientists worldwide are concerned about the presence of acrylamide in food, because of its carcinogenicity and genotoxicity (DNA-damaging effects). It causes tumours in laboratory rats, although there is no definitive evidence that exposure to acrylamide in food causes cancer in humans. It has also been shown to be neurotoxic in humans and may affect reproductive processes. A number of national and international agencies have carried out risk assessments on acrylamide in food and have concluded that efforts should be made to reduce levels to as low as possible. The answer? Keep those spuds in a nice dark cupboard like they told us to in the first place.