Abstract This study compared the effects of different heating methods such as roasting, pan-frying, deep-frying and microwave treatment on the formation of acrylamide (AA) in ready-to-eat croquettes. The experiment was performed with ten commercially available pre-cooked flour-based croquettes with meat filling for home-cooking reheated according to the information on the labels. The AA content was determined by the reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method coupled to a diode array detector (DAD). Browning development and water activity along with free asparagine and sugar content were also monitored. Before preparation, all products showed the lowest (190 μg/kg) acrylamide content. The highest acrylamide content was found when microwave heating was used. The mean AA content in all samples prepared in this way was significantly higher (420 μg/kg) than that of roasting (360 μg/kg), deep-frying (298 μg/kg) or pan-frying (285 μg/kg) (p