Interview
Gene editing: BOFIN trial leading the way for precision-bred crops in the UK
Known as PROBITY – a platform to rate organisms bred for improved traits and yield – the three-year £2.2m project is being led by BOFIN with support from Innovate UK and funding from Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme.
Bringing together farmers, scientists and food manufacturers, PROBITY aims to boost understanding of the potential value of precision-bred crops and their potential future role in a more sustainable food and farming system.
“This is the first project of its nature to be conducted in Europe,” Allen-Stevens told Food Manufacture.
“Gene-edited crops have been treated under genetically modified (GM) food regulations in Europe since 2018, which are highly restrictive. However, a change in legislation introduced in 2023 now allows specific gene-edited crops to be planted in England.”
While genetic modification involves taking DNA from one organism and putting into another in order to introduce a specific trait, gene editing simply involves triggering a change in DNA within a single organism. Such changes occur all the time naturally and due to the way this process is conducted, it is far more precise.
“Very few gene-edited crops are currently grown around the world, so this project wants to get that process underway,” added Allen-Stevens.
“I created BOFIN to bring together farmers with an interest in new technology trials and this project is something I know our membership was very keen to be involved in.”
The ball got rolling on the project earlier this year, with three gene-edited cereals (two types of wheat and one barley) identified for planting. Those seeds were recently harvested at the John Innes Centre near Norwich.
“We currently have 1kg of each seed and by spring of next year hope to have 25kg,” Allen-Stevens said.
“These seeds will then be multiplied up by one of our project partners, so that we should be ready to start planting the seeds on commercial farms in autumn 2025 and then on a wider scale in 2026.”
As it stands, 25 farms will be recruited to take part in the trial once the seeds have been multiplied up. BOFIN plans to plant the two wheat varieties on 10 farms each, with the barley planted at the remaining five farms.
Of the varieties that have been harvested so far, Allen-Stevens was particularly excited about the lower acrylamide wheat.
“Acrylamide is a known carcinogen which is found in starchy products when they are baked or toasted,” he explained.
“If you can imagine black toast that has been burnt, it contains high levels of acrylamide. However, this is also an issue for food manufacturers when toasting breakfast cereals and biscuits.
“Food manufacturers do have existing processes in place to reduce the amount of acrylamide in these products, but access to lower acrylamide wheat would make the production process far simpler.”
Professor Nigel Halford, technical lead of PROBITY and a scientist at Rothamsted Research, has been leading research into lower acrylamide wheat for a long time. Based on his findings, products made with gene-edited wheat will fall below incoming EU acrylamide benchmarks which otherwise will cause “significant challenges” for the industry.
Provided the project goes to plan, Allen-Stevens said that its farmers hope to harvest around 100 tonnes of low acrylamide wheat in 2026 before it is batch processed and sent to Nestec York and Cereal Partners Worldwide.
“Although it is not yet legal for gene-edited crops to be used in food products, Nestec York and Cereal Partners Worldwide are keen to experiment with our precision-bred wheat variety and explore the reformulation process,” he added.
“We expect to see new legislation passed soon and hope that, once this occurs, cereals grown as part of this project will be used to create tasty, nutritious products.”
The technology is advancing quickly, but remains in its infancy. The possibilities though, Allen-Stevens believes, are limitless.
“Gene-edited crops can have a profound impact on food security and the British farming industry,” he said.
“This project is just the start and we are really excited by the progress that has been made so far.”
