Scientists develop gene-edited wheat that can make toasted bread less carcinogenic

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/07/crispr-gene-edited-wheat-toasted-bread-less-carcinogenic-acrylamide

Bread and biscuits made from Crispr-edited wheat showed substantially reduced acrylamide levels

95 points · 10 comments · view on lemmy.world

10 Comments

xtr0n@sh.itjust.works · 30 pts · 141d (2 replies)

I didn’t know that my beloved toast was carcinogenic so this doesn’t feel like good news.

I’m hoping that the actual risk if getting cancer from toast is minimal since like a third of the world lives off of various wheat preparations.

Albbi@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 141d (1 reply)

Yeah, I read the title and was like "Wait, what?"

Now I gotta check if lightly toasting is better if there's no charred spots? The sunflower flax bread I have been using lately will toast with almost no browning, so maybe I'm ok.

DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 0 pts · 138d

Tl;Dr dont char bread, everything else is a minor risk compared to drinking alcohol or driving a commute.

puppinstuff@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 141d

Here’s a NIH study that concluded that not only is the cancer risk from toast statistically insignificant, but the whole grains will decrease your colorectal risk.

Don’t panic, but probably don’t eat charred toast every meal of the day.

pno2nr@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 141d (1 reply)

For fucks sake, you know what else gives you cancer? Living. Being alive gives you cancer. Now piss off while I enjoy this toast.

puppinstuff@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 141d

The only condition that’s 100% curable

Paradachshund@lemmy.today · 11 pts · 141d

Next make some I'm not allergic to please 🙏

Etterra@discuss.online · 6 pts · 140d

If all the things I was concerned might give me cancer, toast was not one of them. Ever.

bazinga@discuss.tchncs.de · -13 pts · 141d (2 replies)
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piccolo@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 141d

Humans have been modifiying the genes of plants for over ten thousand years. Only difference now we can purposely target genes.

CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social · 14 pts · 141d

We've been gene editing crops a long time, it's not proven itself especially harmful beyond the specific ones engineered to resist herbicides allowing greater use of those things, which this doesn't sound like a case of. Food crops are very divergent from wild ancestral plants regardless of the method used to achieve that, if you're finding farm-type wheat out in the wild that probably indicates an ecological problem regardless of if they've been gene edited or not.