Balance of Food

Unique labeling for only one state makes it difficult when trying to do national labels. So when California Attorney General Bill Lockyer wants warning label on French fries and potato chips, companies listen. Lockyer's concern is acrylamide, a chemical that may be found in fries and chips. According to the state, acrylamide causes cancer. Apparently, while the chemical is in a lot of foods, fries and chips have higher levels. California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment estimates consumers who eat French fries receive as much as 125 times the amount of acrylamide that requires a warning under current regulations, according to Lockyer. Potato chips deliver 75 times the warning level, he said. Frito-Lay spokeswoman Lynn Markley has said there is no scientific evidence that acrylamide caused cancer. Teresa Schilling, a spokesperson for Lockyer, said if the lawsuit was successful, the office would want to sit down with the defendants to decide how large the warning labels would be and where they would appear on packaging. Schilling noted that the warning shouldn't be alarming or excessively large. Hopefully, this is more of a scare tactic. Without scientific evidence, the California AG office is treading in some thick water, or oil, as it were. So the French fries on the other side of Reno, Nev. will be labeled, but the Reno fries will have no warning.