ACRYRED: Reducing Acrylamide Exposure of Consumers
Between 2022-2026 the COST Action ACRYRED brought together experts from across Europe and beyond. These members work toward reducing acrylamide exposure of consumers by a cereals supply-chain approach targeting asparagine. ACRYRED’s challenge was to establish a multi-disciplinary research and communication network on reducing acrylamide formation, involving the entire value chain from grains to consumer products.
At the end of COST Association-funding ACRYRED has transitioned to become an AAB Specialist Group. We aim to keep this community of experts together by sharing relevant information and through organisational of conferences and workshops.
We welcome ideas for conferences or other activities from all ACRYRED or AAB members. Please share your ideas with the specialist group commitee or with the AAB office. We look forward to meeting you soon at one of our events.
In June 2026, AAB organised the a final ACRYRED meeting in Palermo. Please download the programme and abstract book here (PDF).
ACRYRED Group Convener
Nigel Halford
nigel.halford@rothamsted.ac.uk
Nigel obtained his first degree from the University of Liverpool in 1983 and a Master’s degree from University College London in 1984. He studied genes encoding high molecular weight subunits of wheat glutenin (a family of wheat seed proteins) for his PhD while at Rothamsted in the 1980s, supervised by Professor Peter Shewry, then spent 11 years at Long Ashton Research Station near Bristol before returning to Rothamsted in 2002. He is the author of more than 170 scientific papers, has written books on ‘Genetically Modified Crops’, now in its third edition (entitled ‘Crop Biotechnology’), ‘An Introduction to Bioenergy’, and ‘Acrylamide in Food’.
Group Members
Neil Buck
Neil is a corporate toxicologist: innovation, consumer safety & SRA. He works for General Mills in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Małgorzata Starowicz
Gosia is an assistant professor at Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research at the University of Warsaw, Poland.
Elena Baldoni
Elena is a senior researcher in plant biology at the University of Milan, Italy.