If you’re reading this over breakfast, you might want to keep a closer eye on the toaster – that extra minute of overcooking could be putting your long-term health could be at stake.

It turns out that overcooking your bread, among other commonly grilled or roasted foods, could lead to a significantly higher risk of- you guessed it – cancer.

In fact, according to The Age, many burnt foods – even crispy roast potatoes – contain “worryingly high” levels of a notorious cancer-causing toxin.

Britain’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) recently completed a study measuring the amount of acrylamide – the offending toxin – inside foods such as chips, roast potatoes and toast.

They discovered that the more burnt the bread was – or the crispier the potato or chip  – the higher the level of acrylamide.

The organisation’s chief scientific advisor suggested that bread should be toasted to “the lightest colour acceptable”, and the potatoes only to “a light golden colour”.

That extra minute could make all the difference. Researched showed that the crispiest toast contained around 19 times more acrylamide than lightly toasted bread.

For potatoes, overcooking could increase the quantity of this harmful substance by up to 80 times.

Does this discovery make you rethink your breakfast habits? How much do you cook your toast or potatoes?