Crunchy-crispy-cancer: Roast potatoes, dark toasts can harm you

Reconsider your favourite breakfast meal because dark toasts and roast potatoes can give you cancer, a new study says.

There’s bad news for those who adore burnt toasts and potato roasts. A new study has revealed that crispier the potato or crunchier the toasts, more are the chances of cancer.

The study by UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) measured the amount of acrylamide - a cancer-causing toxin - in roast potatoes, chips and toast cooked in the home, Stuff.co.nz reported.

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The FSA’s chief scientific adviser said the new research showed the need for roast potatoes and chips to be cooked to only “a light golden colour” and that bread should be toasted to “the lightest colour acceptable”.

Roast potatoes and chips should be cooked to only a light golden colour. (Shutterstock)

Researchers with the FSA discovered that the crispier the roast potato or chip, the higher the levels of acrylamide they contained. The same went for toast.

Guy Poppy, the FSA’s Chief Scientific Adviser, said in a report accompanying the study that the risk assessment indicates that at the levels we are exposed to from food, acrylamide could be increasing the risk of cancer.

Scientists are still unclear about what constitutes a safe level of acrylamide.

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