The California Prop 65 Acrylamide Saga Continues

Before the close of 2022, California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment ("OEHHA") officially finalized two big acrylamide regulations under the state's Proposition 65 program. First, after nearly three years in the making, OEHHA issued its final "Exposures to Acrylamide in Cooked or Heat Processed Foods" rule ("Exposures Rule") aimed at limiting the inundation of Prop 65 actions related to acrylamide formed as a result of cooking or heat processing. Second, OEHHA adopted new Prop 65 "safe harbor" label language for providing warnings about potential exposures to acrylamide in food (the "Safe Harbor Rule").

When the Exposure Rule was first introduced in August 2020, the proposal established that consumption of foods containing acrylamide does not represent an "exposure" requiring a Prop 65 warning so long as the concentrations are "reduced to the lowest level currently feasible using appropriate quality control measures." Similarly, the proposal