Proposition 65
Acrylamide is on the Proposition 65 list. Food and non-food are not the same question
Direct answer. Acrylamide is on California’s Proposition 65 list twice. The list PDF dated July 31, 2026 on its first page prints “Acrylamide” for cancer, CAS No. 79-06-1, listed January 1, 1990, and “Acrylamide” for developmental, male, CAS No. 79-06-1, listed February 25, 2011. Neither row is in strikeout on that page. OEHHA’s acrylamide fact sheet, which prints “Updated October 2025”, states: “A court has decided that businesses do not have to warn about exposure to acrylamide in food.” The same sheet also says acrylamide “has been used in grouts and cements” and “is also used to produce polyacrylamide.” Those are different sentences. This page does not name a case, describe a ruling, or decide whether any product needs a warning. It is not legal advice. Checked 12 October 2026.
Prop 65 Warning Manager (Shopify App Store · Write a review): “Display California Prop 65 warnings on product pages and keep an audit trail of warning edits, assignments, and storefront activation events.” It does not decide whether a warning is required.
Related: CLPLens — Hazard pictograms on the product page, not only the parcel.
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Checklist
- Read both list rows. Cancer and developmental, male are separate lines, with separate dates.
- Read the food sentence on the fact sheet before you treat a food question as the same question as grout, cement, or polyacrylamide.
- Safe-harbor wording is in Title 27, quoted below. This page does not decide that any product needs a warning.
- The fact sheet’s section “How can I reduce my exposure to acrylamide?” is written for people. It is not warning content.
The two list rows
Page 1 of the PDF is titled “PROPOSITION 65 LIST OF CARCINOGENS OR REPRODUCTIVE TOXICANTS” and dated “July 31, 2026”. The same page says the list is published in Title 27, California Code of Regulations, section 27001, and that the date refers to the initial appearance of the chemical on the list. It also says chemicals or endpoints shown in strikeout were later removed. The two acrylamide rows below are not in strikeout on the page read for this guide. A different listing, “AF-2;[2-(2-furyl)-3-(5-nitro-2-furyl)] acrylamide”, is a different name and is not copied here.
| Chemical | Type of Toxicity | CAS No. | Date Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acrylamide | cancer | 79-06-1 | January 1, 1990 |
| Acrylamide | developmental, male | 79-06-1 | February 25, 2011 |
The OEHHA chemical page for acrylamide, read on 12 October 2026, says cancer is currently listed, listed as causing cancer, date of listing 01/01/1990. It also says reproductive toxicity is currently listed. This page does not restate the reproductive listing mechanism. Under safe harbor levels the same page prints “No Significant Risk Level (NSRL): 0.2 µg/day” and “Maximum Allowable Dose Level (MADL) : 140 µg/day”. Those figures are copied from that page. They are not calculated here. This page did not open 27 CCR § 25805. The figures are not a statement that any product is above or below them.
The fact sheet: the warning sentence, the court sentence, and what acrylamide is
Quotes are from p65warnings.ca.gov/fact-sheets/acrylamide, which prints “Updated October 2025”. Checked 12 October 2026. The fact sheet does not link a separate OEHHA or California Attorney General page about an acrylamide food ruling. The Attorney General link in the site footer is the agency home page, not a ruling page. This guide therefore links the fact sheet only, and it does not name a case.
Under “Why am I being warned about potential exposure to acrylamide?” the sheet includes this bullet: “California’s Proposition 65 requires businesses to warn people before exposing them to a significant amount of a chemical listed under Proposition 65 for cancer or reproductive toxicity.”
The next bullet on that page: “A court has decided that businesses do not have to warn about exposure to acrylamide in food. However, people can still take steps to reduce their exposure to this chemical.”
Under “What is acrylamide?” the sheet includes these bullets:
- “Acrylamide is used for industrial purposes. It has been used in grouts and cements. It is also used to produce polyacrylamide.”
- “Acrylamide is formed in certain plant-based foods during cooking or processing at high temperatures, such as frying, roasting, grilling, and baking. Boiling or steaming foods does not create acrylamide.”
The food sentence and the grout, cement, and polyacrylamide sentence answer different questions. This page stops at the fact-sheet sentences. It does not describe what a court decided beyond the sentence quoted above.
The sheet’s later heading is “How can I reduce my exposure to acrylamide?” Those lines, including the dietary suggestions under that heading, are written for people. They are not the text of a warning and they are not copied here as warning content.
Safe-harbor content: § 25603(a), and the food sections
The consumer-product and food-content sentences below are from OEHHA’s final regulatory text for Title 27, sections 25601, 25602, 25603, and 25607.2. The PDF says amendments are shown in underline and strikethrough. The sentences quoted here are the operative wording: where a line prints both, the struck words are left out and the underlined words are kept. Confirm the codified California Code of Regulations before you treat a line as current.
§ 25603(a) opens: “Unless otherwise specified in Section 25607.1 et seq., a warning meets the requirements of this subarticle if it is provided using one or more of the methods required in Section 25602 and includes all the following elements:”
- § 25603(a)(1): “A symbol consisting of a black exclamation point in a yellow equilateral triangle with a bold black outline. Where the sign, label or shelf tag for the product is not printed using the color yellow, the symbol may be printed in black and white. The symbol shall be placed to the left of the text of the warning, in a size no smaller than the height of the word ‘WARNING’.”
- § 25603(a)(2) lead: “The word ‘WARNING:’ or the words ‘CA WARNING:’ or ‘CALIFORNIA WARNING:’ in all capital letters and bold print, and:”
- § 25603(a)(2)(A), for exposures to listed carcinogens: “This product can expose you to chemicals including [name of one or more chemicals], which is [are] known to the State of California to cause cancer. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.”
The same subsection continues with reproductive, combined, and single-chemical variants in (a)(2)(B) through (E). Short-form content, type size, and internet or catalog methods are on the short-form warning guide, warning examples, cited templates, California-only wording, and the product-page warning guide. Lead is a different listing. Food short-form layout is the food warning guide.
That OEHHA PDF does not reprint § 25607.1. The methods section quoted next is the text on the Legal Information Institute page for Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 27, § 25607.1. The file’s last-modified date on that page was 30 July 2025 when fetched on 12 October 2026. It is a republication of the regulation, not an OEHHA typeset PDF.
§ 25607.1(a), as that page prints it: “A warning for food exposures, including dietary supplements, meets the requirements of this subarticle if it complies with the content requirements in Section 25607.2 and is provided using one or more of the methods listed in Section 25602.”
§ 25607.1(b): “Where the warning is provided on the food product label, it must be set off from other surrounding information, enclosed in a box and comply with the content requirements specified in Section 25607.2.”
§ 25607.2(a), operative wording in the OEHHA PDF: “A warning for food exposures, including dietary supplements, meets the requirements of this subarticle if it is provided using one or more of the methods specified in Section 25607.1 and includes all the following elements:” Point (2) of that subsection, for exposure to a listed carcinogen: “Consuming this product can expose you to chemicals including [name of one or more chemicals], which is [are] known to the State of California to cause cancer. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/food.”
Article 6 does contain acrylamide-specific text
As of 12 October 2026, both the OEHHA final regulatory text PDF and the LII page for § 25607.2 print a subsection on food exposures to acrylamide. In the OEHHA PDF it is § 25607.2(c). The opening, as printed:
“A warning for food exposures to acrylamide meets the requirements of this subarticle if it is provided: (i) in accordance with subsection (a), or, (ii) via one or more of the methods specified in Section 25607.1 and complies with either (1) or (2) below.”
Point (1): “The words ‘WARNING:’ or ‘CA WARNING:’ or ‘CALIFORNIA WARNING:’ in all capital letters and bold print, followed by the words, ‘Consuming this product can expose you to acrylamide, a probable human carcinogen formed in some foods during cooking or processing at high temperatures. Many factors affect your cancer risk, including the frequency and amount of the chemical consumed. For more information including ways to reduce your exposure, see www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/acrylamide.’”
Point (2) begins: “The words ‘WARNING:’ or ‘CA WARNING’ or ‘CALIFORNIA WARNING:’ in all capital letters and bold print, followed by the language in subsections (A) and (B).” The PDF then prints optional sentences in (C), including a closing line that uses www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/acrylamide. The abbreviation sentence in that PDF ends with the printed characters “EPA”. followed by a period, using an opening curly quotation mark and a straight closing quotation mark. This page does not copy every sentence in (c)(2). They are in the PDF and on the LII page.
The fact sheet, updated October 2025, still states: “A court has decided that businesses do not have to warn about exposure to acrylamide in food.” This page quotes both the regulatory subsection and that fact-sheet sentence. It does not describe the decision, and it does not say whether § 25607.2(c) is or is not the text to use on a food label.
What this page is not
- Not legal advice, and not a decision that any food or non-food product does or does not need a warning.
- Not a description of a court case. The only court sentence on this page is the fact-sheet sentence quoted above.
- Not an exposure, enforcement, settlement, or penalty page. The only dose figures are the NSRL and MADL copied from the chemical page.
- Not warning content taken from the fact sheet’s dietary tips.
Related pages
- Prop 65 warning question check
- Prop 65 food warning on Shopify
- Prop 65 warning examples
- Prop 65 short-form warning
- Cited templates under 27 CCR
- California-only warning
- Product-page warning
- Prop 65 lead warning
- Proposition 65 list (PDF) — dated July 31, 2026
- Acrylamide fact sheet — updated October 2025
- OEHHA chemical page
- OEHHA final regulatory text (PDF)
- Prop 65 Warning Manager — live App Store listing
- Shopify apps hub
- Tools
Not legal advice. Confirm the current OEHHA list, the fact sheet, and the codified text of 27 CCR §§ 25603, 25607.1, and 25607.2 before you treat a line as current. The fact-sheet sentence about food is quoted above and is not expanded here. The app displays warnings you enter and keeps an audit trail. It does not decide whether a warning is required.