Su Bin Choi (우석대학교)

Won Bin Choi (우석대학교)

Su Bin Choi (우석대학교)

Won Bin Choi (우석대학교)

Chung Hun Baek (우석대학교)

Mun Yhung Jung (우석대학교 호텔외식조리학과)

Acrylamide is a well-recognized toxicant with documented carcinogenic and neurotoxic potential that is formed predominantly in starchy foods during high-temperature processing. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified acrylamide as a Group 2A probable human carcinogen in 1994, underscoring its potential health risks. In this study, freshly harvested lotus roots were stored for 15 days, and lotus root chips were prepared from the stored roots using an air fryer. Changes in the levels of acrylamide precursors (free sugars and free asparagine) in the roots were determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry following trimethylsilyl (TMS) and isobutyl chloroformate (IBCF) derivatization, respectively. Acrylamide formation in the resulting chips was quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS). Acrylamide levels increased substantially with storage duration, reaching up to a 50-fold increase after storage. This increase was accompanied by a significant accumulation of reducing sugars in the roots, which showed a strong positive correlation with acrylamide levels in the chips. These findings provide evidence that the accumulation of reducing sugars is the important factor driving acrylamide formation in air-fried chips prepared from stored lotus roots.​