Lawsuit over potato chip ingredient settled

Soooo NOT cool!!!!!!! I wonder how many other companies are doing things that the public is unaware of! Maybe that is why cancer cannot be cured or we are being diagnosed every second, because we are unaware of what we feed our bodies!
Lawsuit over potato chip ingredient settled

Article below, if the link does not work:

Lawsuit over potato chip ingredient settled

State protested chemical in food
August 02, 2008By Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Frito-Lay and two other potato chip companies have agreed to reduce the levels of a cancer-causing chemical in their products in a settlement of a state lawsuit, Attorney General Jerry Brown said Friday.

The court-approved settlement comes three years after Brown's predecessor, Bill Lockyer, sued fast-food chains and potato chip companies, saying they had failed to warn California consumers about the dangers of acrylamide.

Besides Frito-Lay, which sells most of the potato chips in California, the other companies agreeing to reduce acrylamide levels are Kettle Foods, maker of Kettle Chips, and Lance Inc., maker of Cape Cod Chips, Brown's office said. In another settlement last week, Heinz agreed to cut in half the acrylamide levels in Ore-Ida frozen french fries and tater tots and pay $600,000 in penalties and costs, the state said.

health and safety in California" and called for similar actions by other makers of chips and french fries.

Procter & Gamble agreed in January to reduce acrylamide by 50 percent in Pringles potato chips. McDonald's, KFC, Wendy's and Burger King agreed last year to post warnings about acrylamide in chips and fries.

Acrylamide is produced when potatoes and other starchy foods are cooked at high temperatures. It is used industrially for treating sewage, and its presence in food was unknown in 1990 when California listed the chemical as a cancer-causing substance under Proposition 65. That initiative, passed in 1986, requires companies to post warnings of exposure to substances that cause cancer or birth defects.

Swedish scientists were the first to detect acrylamide in food in a 2002 study. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is studying the chemical but has not imposed nationwide restrictions. The FDA has advised consumers that they can reduce the levels of acrylamide in fried potatoes by not over-browning them while cooking.

The settlement requires the potato chip producers to reduce acrylamide to 275 parts per billion in three years, a low enough level to avoid a Prop. 65 warning label. That amounts to a 20 percent reduction for Frito-Lay and an 87 percent reduction for Kettle Chips, Brown's office said. Little or no reduction will be needed for most Cape Cod chips, but one product, Cape Cod Robust Russets, will require a warning label, the attorney general said.

The companies also agreed to pay nearly $2 million in penalties and costs.