Abstract
The presence of toxic acrylamide in a wide range of food products such as potato crisps, French fries or bread has been confirmed by Swedish scientists from Stockholm University. The neurotoxicity, possible carcinogenicity of this compound and its metabolites compels us to control them by quantitative and qualitative assays. Acrylamide forms adduct with hemoglobin (Hb) as a result of the reaction the -NH2 group of the Nterminal valine with acrylamide. In this work we present the use of glassy carbon electrodes coated with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and Hb for voltammetric detection of acrylamide in water solutions. The electrodes presented a very low detection limit (1.0×10(-9) M). The validation made in the matrix obtained by water extraction of potato crisps showed that the electrodes presented are suitable for the direct determination of acrylamide in food samples.