The Occurrence of Acrylamide in Iranian Date Syrup

The tendency to consume food with lower sugar content and alternatively healthy foods and food products are rising. High levels of sugar in date syrup might be used as a good alternative to sugar in various food products. Iran is one of the main producers of date fruit and it is possible to produce foods with high nutritional values from date to replace high-sugar content food. The formation of acrylamide in date syrups as the result of various procedures of heat treatment and extent of its formation has made the researchers interested in this field of study to investigate the formation of this compound quantitatively by the application of high-pressure liquid chromatography. The results indicated that some of the date syrup samples that were collected in the Iranian market had significant quantities of acrylamide. It is therefore concluded that the date syrups might be considered as a high-risk product due to the formation of acrylamide that is considered a carcinogenic compound.