Wait! You might not want to eat that...

The discovery of significant levels of acrylamide in cooked and fried foods like french fries, crackers and breakfast cereals has been widely reported in the press. Scientists speculated that acrylamide, a potent nerve toxin in humans and an endocrine disrupter that affects male reproduction and causes birth defects and cancer in animals, is somehow formed during the cooking process. These reports did not reveal the fact that acrylamide is a building block for the polymer polyacrylamide, a so-called "inert" ingredient added to herbicide mixtures to reduce spray drift and act as a surfactant. Roundup, the glyphosate herbicide made by Monsanto Corporation, is of particular concern because the herbicide interacts with the polymer. Experiments show that heat and light contribute to the release of acrylamide from polyacrylamide, and glyphosate was found to influence the solubility of polyacrylamide, so care was advised in mixing the two. Cooking or frying vegetables or grains exposed to polyacrylamide-containing herbicides releases even more acrylamide. Polyacrylamide is a "trade secret" additive in North America and information on the contents of herbicide preparations is not available to the public (www.i-sis.org.uk/acrylamide/php). So what is the public to do? Don't eat any food, especially cooked or fried food, that is not organic.