Acrylamide is an industrial carcinogen which, in recent years, has unfortunately been recognized as a substantial constituent of many foods we eat. In 2002, Swedish researchers published an important study showing that potatoes and certain other foods heated at high temperatures contain very high levels of acrylamide. The highest levels of the carcinogen were found in french fries and potato chips, but high levels of acrylamide have also been found in cereals, breads, and coffee. Subsequent research established that acrylamide was formed by a chemical process known as the Maillard reaction in which asparagine, a common constituent of many foods, when being heated at high temperatures, produces acrylamide.
Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT) v. McDonald’s and Burger King. In 2002, the Metzger Law Group filed the first Proposition 65 case regarding acrylamide on behalf of the Council for Education and Research on Toxics to require fast food companies such as McDonald’s and Burger King to warn consumers of the acrylamide hazard in french fries. Eventually the California Attorney General joined the suit and the Metzger Law Group co-litigated the case with the Attorney General. After 6 years of litigation and several months of expert depositions, the case settled in 2008 when McDonald’s and Burger King agreed to provide cancer hazard warnings regarding acrylamide in their french fries, agreed to pay civil penalties to CERT and the Attorney General, and paid attorney’s fees to the Metzger Law Group for protecting public health. As a result of this lawsuit, fast food companies in California now give consumers such cancer hazard warnings regarding acrylamide in french fries. The lawsuit also prompted potato chip manufacturers such as Frito Lay to improve their production process to reduce the acrylamide content of their potato chips to safe levels.
Council for Education and Research on Toxics v. Starbucks Corporation, et al. In 2010, the Metzger Law Group filed suit against ready-to-drink coffee companies to require them to give consumers cancer hazard warnings regarding acrylamide in coffee or to reduce the acrylamide content of their coffee products to safe levels. The Metzger Law Group is concerned that this carcinogen is in so many foods that we eat and is seriously undertaking efforts to require food companies to reduce the acrylamide content of their food products or, if they cannot do so, to warn California consumers that this carcinogen is present in the foods that they sell.