Food safety

🍟 Acrylamide when frying: keep it golden, not brown

EU 2017/2158 makes acrylamide mitigation mandatory. The simple frying rules that keep you compliant.

This is general guidance. Food-safety rules can change — always verify the current requirements with your national food-safety authority ↗. The operator remains responsible for compliance; we accept no liability for this information.

Acrylamide forms when starchy foods — fries, crisps, bread, roast potatoes — are cooked above about 120°C. It is suspected of being carcinogenic, and under EU Regulation 2017/2158 food businesses, including restaurants, must apply measures to keep it as low as reasonably achievable (the ALARA principle). There is no single legal maximum, but there are benchmark levels used to judge whether your measures are working.

The practical rules

≤ 175°CFryer temperature

goldennot dark brown

500 µg/kgfries benchmark

Keep the fryer at or below 175°C — hotter oil forms more acrylamide
Fry to a golden colour, never dark brown; a colour chart helps staff be consistent
Store potatoes cool but not below ~8°C, so they don’t build up the sugars that drive browning
Use varieties suited to frying, and keep the oil clean — worn oil makes it worse

You are expected to document that you do these things — the frying temperature, the colour standard, the oil checks. That documentation is exactly what the regulation asks for.

Log frying temperature and oil-change dates as checks so your acrylamide-mitigation measures are evidenced, not just intended.

EU Regulation 2017/2158, in force since 11 April 2018. Benchmark for ready-to-eat fries: 500 µg/kg.