The effect of amino acids other than asparagine on acrylamide (AA) formation/ elimination kinetics was studied in an asparagine-glucose model system (0.01 M, pH 6) heated at temperatures between 140 and 200 degrees C. Addition of cysteine or lysine to the model significantly lowered the AA yield, whereas addition of glutamine had a strong promoting effect and of alanine a rather neutral effect on the AA formation. This was also reflected by AA formation/elimination kinetics, which for all model systems studied could be modeled by two consecutive first-order reactions. The ratio of the elimination to the formation rate constant increased from the systems to which glutamine or alanine was added, over the control model system, to the model systems that contained lysine or cysteine.