03 Sep 2021 --- Field trials of CRISPR-edited wheat are underway at Rothamsted Research, an unprecedented study for both the UK and mainland Europe, which have stringent GM regulation. The UK’s Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has greenlighted the trials to reduce high levels of acrylamide in bread – a carcinogenic processing contaminant that arises when bread containing asparagine is baked or toasted.