Reducing Dietary Acrylamide Exposure from Wheat Products through Crop Management and Imaging

The nutritional safety
of wheat-based food products is
compromised
by the presence of the processing contaminant acrylamide. Reduction
of the key acrylamide precursor, free (soluble, non-protein) asparagine,
in wheat grain can be achieved through crop management strategies,
but such strategies have not been fully developed. We ran two field
trials with 12 soft (biscuit) wheat varieties and different nitrogen,
sulfur, potassium, and phosphorus fertilizer combinations. Our results
indicated that a nitrogen-to-sulfur ratio of 10:1 kg/ha was sufficient
to prevent large increases in free asparagine, whereas withholding
potassium or phosphorus alone did not cause increases in free asparagine
when sulfur was applied. Multispectral measurements of plants in the
field were able to predict the free asparagine content of grain with
an accuracy of 71%, while a combination of multispectral, fluorescence,
and morphological measurements of seeds could distinguish high free
asparagine grain from low free asparagine grain with an accuracy of
86%. The acrylamide content of biscuits correlated strongly with free
asparagine content and with color measurements, indicating that agronomic
strategies to decrease free asparagine would be effective and that
quality control checks based on product color could eliminate high
acrylamide biscuit products.

小麦食品产品的营养安全性受到加工污染物丙烯酰胺的侵害。通过作物管理策略降低小麦谷物中关键丙烯酰胺前体——游离（可溶性、非蛋白质）天冬酰胺的含量，是可行的，但此类策略尚未得到充分发展。本研究进行了两项田间试验，涉及12个软质（饼干）小麦品种以及不同的氮、硫、钾和磷肥组合。研究结果指出，氮硫比为10:1千克/公顷足以防止游离天冬酰胺的大幅增加，而单独抑制钾或磷的施用，在施用硫的情况下，并未导致游离天冬酰胺的增加。田间植物的多光谱测量能够以71%的准确率预测谷物中的游离天冬酰胺含量，而结合多光谱、荧光和种子形态测量的方法，能够以86%的准确率区分高游离天冬酰胺谷物与低游离天冬酰胺谷物。饼干中的丙烯酰胺含量与游离天冬酰胺含量以及颜色测量值高度相关，这表明降低游离天冬酰胺的农业策略是有效的，并且基于产品颜色的质量控制检查能够消除高丙烯酰胺含量的饼干产品。