Abstract:

Acrylamide and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural formed in thermal treatment of foods have serious harmful impacts on
consumers’ health. Thorough research on their toxicity and formation mechanism, and approaches to detecting and inhibiting
them can contribute to rational utilization of heat treatment processes, improving the safety of thermally processed foods,
and exploiting new methods for inhibiting their formation. In this review, the toxicity, formation mechanisms, and inhibitory
methods of acrylamide and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural are documented. The existing problems involved in the inhibition
methods are summarized. In the future, the development of inhibition methods should be focused on simultaneously
inhibiting multiple Maillard reaction products with potential toxicity.

Key words: acrylamide, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, toxicity, Maillard reaction, inhibition