“One concern about spuds: frying, baking or roasting them to a char. The Food and Drug Administration in 2013 warned consumers to avoid cooking potatoes and other plant-based foods to a very dark brown, due to the formation of a chemical called acrylamide. While the FDA has said it isn’t clear exactly how risky acrylamide is to humans, the agency has urged consumers to mind how much fried and roasted potatoes they eat, and outlined strategies for food companies to reduce acrylamide formation in their products.

Friedberg believes Ohalo has a solution. Using gene-editing technologies that allow scientists to tinker with a plant’s DNA without adding outside genetic material, the company’s researchers use proteins to switch off specific genes, then grow the edited cells into enhanced potato plants.

The technology, Friedberg says, also enables Ohalo to combine low acrylamide varieties—which sometimes don’t grow reliably or plentifully—with higher-yielding varieties.”

From Wall Street Journal.