*3.6. Study of the Correlations among Parameters*

At the end of the study, an evaluation of the significant correlations was carried out to establish if one or more of the other parameters could be considered as chemical markers of the quantity of acrylamide present in the samples. This evaluation included all of the biscuits produced, those originating from both the FDOE and the RIB samples. One of the most interesting correlations was found between acrylamide and *aw* (r = −0.73; *p* ≤ 0.001). It was a negative correlation, meaning the higher the *aw,* the lower the acrylamide content. Acrylamide was also positively correlated to the thickness to the *aw* ratio (r = 0.66; *p* ≤ 0.01).

Furthermore, acrylamide was positively correlated with a\* (r = 0.57; *p* ≤ 0.02). However, the most relevant correlation was found with a combination of the three CIELab color coordinates, that is, h◦ (r = −0.84; *p* ≤ 0.001); (a\*/b\*) × L (r = 0.87; *p* ≤ 0.001); and a\*/b\* (r = 0.84; *p* ≤ 0.001), as some authors have previously described [22,40]. This would lead to

the prediction of the extent of acrylamide content in samples by comparing the coupling of *aw* and CIELab color indices. The lower the *aw* and the higher the color indices, the higher the acrylamide concentration in biscuits.
