I thought the article left a lot of questions unanswered. It implies that the preparation used in partially cooking, freezing and frying the potatoes is what is causing the high amounts of acrylamide (the potentially cancer causing chemical that is formed during cooking certain foods at a high heat.) Then it says, "the process often used to prepare frozen chips for the catering trade does not reduce its levels." Reduce? The catering trade? What does reduce it? Why is it there in the first place? How can I make chips that won't have high levels of acrylamide? So I found the press release that the American Chemistry Society released. It states that they are researching how to lower the levels. They are conducting tests during each stage of the making of these chips/fries to see where the levels go up. There is a stage where the potatoes are dipped in a glucose/fructose solution and there is a correlation between the sugars and the resulting high levels. The FDA states, "In laboratory studies, acrylamide caused cancer in animals, but at acrylamide levels much higher than those seen in foods. FDA is now conducting research to determine whether the much lower levels of acrylamide in food pose a health risk to people." So, while they're researching that... lets find a way to minimize our risk!
Wash the outside of your potatoes, but don’t peel. The skin contains a lot of fibre which is good for you. And it helps keep the chip from falling apart when we roast.
Cut your potato in half. Then, placing the flat side down, cut into wedges.
Put a good drizzle of Olive Oil in a baking dish. Toss your wedges in and sprinkle a little sea salt over.
Place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Make sure you check about 15 minutes in and give the potatoes a good toss around with a spatula to make sure they aren’t sticking and get evenly cooked on all sides.