{"id":882757,"date":"2026-04-09T16:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T16:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/882757\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T16:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T16:28:18","slug":"if-you-like-to-eat-burnt-toast-these-are-the-real-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/882757\/","title":{"rendered":"If you like to eat burnt toast, these are the real risks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hello, and welcome back to Everyday Science.<\/p>\n<p>If your preferred toaster setting tends to set off the smoke alarm, it may be concerning to learn that burnt toast contains a potentially cancer-causing substance.<\/p>\n<p>But scientists may have the solution in the form of genetically altered wheat, which leads to bread with lower levels of the substance acrylamide.<\/p>\n<p>Until this bread arrives, how much should we be worrying about acrylamide, and is there anything we can do to avoid it?<\/p>\n<p>New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n<p>Acrylamide has been added relatively recently to the long list of food ingredients that people get exercised about. It was initially thought to be a <a class=\"post_in-line_link\" href=\"https:\/\/inews.co.uk\/topic\/cancer?ico=in-line_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">carcinogenic<\/a> chemical mainly found in plastics, until 2002, when the Swedish National Food Administration announced it had been found in some common fried and baked foods.<\/p>\n<p>They discovered that it forms in certain kinds of starchy foods, especially bread and potatoes, when they are cooked at high temperatures. Sales of chips in Sweden nearly halved, though they soon recovered.<\/p>\n<p>Acrylamide is one of hundreds of similar compounds formed by a chemical reaction between sugars and amino acids \u2013 the building blocks of proteins \u2013 called the Maillard reaction.<\/p>\n<p>Substances formed during this chemical reaction give rise to many of the delicious tastes, smells and dark colours of well-cooked food, like crispy roast potatoes and charred meat \u2013 and they are part of why toast tastes distinctly different to bread.<\/p>\n<p>Acrylamide itself is not dark (or tasty) but food that is very dark from cooking generally has more of it.<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"--section-color: #CF1717\" class=\"qa\">\n<p>Sources of acrylamide<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Toast, especially if burnt<\/li>\n<li>Crackers and crispbread<\/li>\n<li>Roast potatoes and chips<\/li>\n<li>Potato crisps<\/li>\n<li>Crisps made from vegetables, like parsnips<\/li>\n<li>Coffee<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The trouble is that it is unclear just how much of a cancer risk acrylamide is. The main evidence against it comes from research on rats, but they were dosed with much higher levels than people normally eat, no matter how burnt their toast.<\/p>\n<p>Studies into whether people who eat more acrylamide are more likely to get cancer have generally been negative. \u201cWe don\u2019t have enough evidence from [human] studies to say that it can be associated with increased risk of cancer,\u201d said Dr Federica Laguzzi, a diet researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cancerresearchuk.org\/about-cancer\/causes-of-cancer\/cancer-myths-questions\/does-burnt-toast-cause-cancer\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cancer Research UK<\/a> also said in 2024: \u201cEating acrylamide in burnt food is unlikely to increase cancer risk. It is true that animal studies have shown that acrylamide has cancer-causing effects. But these studies gave animals very high levels of acrylamide. We are very unlikely to eat this amount of acrylamide in our diet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But others disagree. The World Health Organisation classifies the substance as a \u201cprobable carcinogen\u201d. The EU has maximum acrylamide levels for bread and other wheat-based foods.<\/p>\n<p>And the UK Food Standards Agency was concerned enough that in 2017 it started a campaign against overcooking food, called \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/saferfoodscores.co.uk\/fsa-campaign-to-raise-awareness-of-acrylamide\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Go for Gold<\/a>\u201d \u2013 which advises that things like toast, chips and parsnips should be a light golden brown colour, and no darker. Burnt toast is a no-no.<\/p>\n<p>Food companies, too, became concerned about acrylamide in their products and looked into ways to reduce its formation.<\/p>\n<p>It is a tricky problem because acrylamide forms when there is a reaction between sugar and one particular amino acid called asparagine, and levels of those substances in wheat and potatoes are affected by their growing conditions. Just adding a different fertiliser to wheat helps reduce levels somewhat.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"419\" width=\"760\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SEI_292520353.jpg\" alt=\"Twenty crisp varieties in different shades of brown\" class=\"wp-image-4345273\"  \/>Different potato varieties have different acrylamide levels (Photo: Stephen Elmore)<\/p>\n<p>Most crisps today are a lighter colour than they were 20 years ago because they use potato varieties with less sugar, said Dr Stephen Elmore, a food scientist at the University of Reading, who has worked with crisp manufacturers on this issue. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t affect the flavour,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>A strain of wheat with half the levels of acrylamide was also developed 15 years ago, but this gives a lower yield for farmers. The latest development is that UK agricultural institute Rothamsted Research has used gene editing to make wheat with <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/pbi.70661\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">90 per cent lower acrylamide<\/a> when bread is toasted \u2013 and no loss of wheat yield.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t expect the gene-edited bread in the supermarket soon, though. Gene-edited foods cannot yet be sold in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>They used to be banned because of EU laws. After Brexit, a new law came into effect that allows firms to apply on a case-by-case basis for approval to allow them to be sold in England (although not the rest of the UK).<\/p>\n<p>But the wheat still needs to be tested in field trials. No one has yet even tasted it, said Professor Nigel Halford, who helped create the gene-edited wheat.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not to mention the fact that the Government plans to bring UK food and plant laws more into line with EU laws in a bid to ease trade barriers; whether gene-edited foods will be an exception is still under negotiation.<\/p>\n<p>The EU might be receptive to the gene-edited wheat because it has been trying for years to bring in new lower limits for acrylamide in a range of foods. On the other hand, long-standing EU sentiment against genetically altered foods might win out.<\/p>\n<p>How much should people care about acrylamide in their diet in the meantime? Laguzzi said: \u201cPersonally, I don\u2019t worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve also written<\/p>\n<p>The Artemis astronauts are nearly home \u2013 but considering we have already sent so many uncrewed probes to the Moon, <a class=\"post_in-line_link\" href=\"https:\/\/inews.co.uk\/news\/always-choose-earth-nasa-astronauts-record-breaking-flight-4338954?ico=in-line_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">what was the point of this mission<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been reading<\/p>\n<p>If you enjoyed Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, you\u2019ll be pleased to hear she will soon have a new book out, called Exit Party. It will go on sale in September, but I\u2019ve been devouring a review copy and can report that it\u2019s another banger.<\/p>\n<p>Mandel\u2019s forte is \u201csoft sci-fi\u201d, with novels usually set in the near future, in settings that are similar enough to our own lives that they are utterly convincing \u2013 with a few mind-bending twists of space-time thrown in the mix. She has done exactly this with Exit Party, with her usual flair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hello, and welcome back to Everyday Science. If your preferred toaster setting tends to set off the smoke&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4318],"tags":[40984,372,105,4434,47962,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-882757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-bread","9":"tag-diet","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-nutrition","12":"tag-subscriber-newsletter","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116375696759449209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}