Effect of radiofrequency heating on acrylamide formation in bakery products

This work was addressed to study the influence of radiofrequency (RF) heating on acrylamide (AA) formation in bakery products. To this purpose, leavened cakes and short dough biscuits were baked to a final moisture of 3.5 and 3.0%, respectively, by means of conventional convection heating or different combinations of conventional and RF heating. Results showed that, with respect to the baking process entirely carried out in an air-circulating oven, the RF-assisted baking process, i.e. the application of RF heating in the last stages of the baking process, resulted to be a promising strategy to keep low the AA levels in the bakery products. In particular, the best results were obtained for products which were moved from the hot-air baking to the RF heating when their residual moisture was still fairly high (around 10%). Results also suggested that, when very low values of residual moisture are required, this technological intervention is more suitable to thin bakery products, such as biscuits, than to thick products, such as leavened cakes, because of excessive browning in the internal portion as a consequence of the RF heating.