Investigation of the effects of cooking parameters on acrylamide formation using gold nanoparticle based colorimetric sensor

In this study, a colorimetric sensor method was developed for the determination of acrylamide in order to examine the effects of cooking parameters on acrylamide (AA) formation. This chemically designed colorimetric sensor is based on distance variation between gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). For this purpose, AuNPs were modified with dithiothreitol (DTT), which was used as a sensing molecule. AA was then added to the resulting AuNP-DTT conjugation, and the added AA reacted with the thiol group, causing the AuNP to aggregate and its characteristic red color to change to blue. In the solution environment, color changes with increasing AA levels could be distinguished with the naked eye, and characteristic peak values at increasing wavelengths were obtained in UV-Vis spectroscopy. Then, a filter paper-based color kit was designed for the colorimetric analysis of AA contents of loaf bread, toast bread and sponge cake samples baked/brown at different cooking temperatures and cooking times. Color changes from red to blue on the color kit with increasing AA concentration in cooked products occurred within seconds, and the RGB (red-green-blue) values were easily determined via a smartphone application. The data obtained show that the design is a fast and non-destructive tool and it has the potential for on-site application in presence/absence analyzes and comparative analyzes in terms of cooking parameters. Loaf bread, toast bread and sponge cake experimental sets cooked/grilled with different cooking/grilling parameters were also evaluated in terms of cooking/grilling performance and their scores were calculated. For all cooking, the most optimum cooking parameter was selected in terms of both AA content and cooking/grilling performance.