CRISPR wheat cuts toast acrylamide to undetectable levels
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- Rothamsted Research used CRISPR to edit the asparagine-production gene in wheat, reducing free asparagine in grain by 59% in a single edit and up to 93% in a dual-edited line across two years of field trials with no yield loss.
- Bread and biscuits made from the edited wheat showed substantially reduced acrylamide, with concentrations in some toasted bread samples falling below detectable limits.
- Conventional chemical mutagenesis, the approved non-editing alternative, achieved only a 50% asparagine reduction but came with a nearly 25% yield penalty, likely from unintended mutations elsewhere in the genome.
- The UK's 2023 Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act eased rules for marketing gene-edited crops post-Brexit, but a pending UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary agreement could force dynamic alignment with EU GMO rules and slow adoption.
- The EU is tightening benchmark levels for acrylamide in food this year, a regulation that would also apply to UK exports — giving low-acrylamide wheat a compliance edge in the bloc's market.
- Lead researcher Dr. Navneet Kaur said CRISPR delivers "precise, beneficial changes in crop genetics," while Prof. Nigel Halford said low-acrylamide wheat lets food businesses "meet evolving safety standards without compromising product quality."
Why it matters: Low-acrylamide wheat gives UK food manufacturers a path to meeting tightening EU acrylamide limits (in force this year) without the 25% yield hit of older chemical-mutagenesis methods — but the win only holds if the UK-EU trade deal preserves the Precision Breeding Act's carve-out for gene-edited crops.
