It has been demonstrated that a strain of gene-edited wheat that could be sold in Britain under a new rule greatly reduces the danger of a chemical related to cancer when bread is cooked and toasted.
Researchers at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire “knocked out” a gene in wheat that they believed would reduce the production of asparagine using the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR.
When wheat is cooked, the amino acid asparagine can be transformed to acrylamide, a substance known to cause cancer in animals. In the case of toast, the risk increases with increasing bread burntness, but acrylamide can also be created without toasting.
Asparagine levels in the gene-edited strain were approximately 50% lower than in a control crop according to the results of the field study at Rothamsted, where wheat was sown in October 2021 and harvested in August 2022.
Asparagine levels in the gene-edited wheat were up to 45% lower when the grain was ground into flour and baked at 160°C.
“It’s definitely proof of concept that we can significantly lower asparagine levels. Because the experiment only lasted a year, we will undoubtedly continue with field tests. But right now, it appears to be quite promising,” said Nigel Halford, Rothamsted’s lead research scientist.
