It sounds to me like the science is actually pretty inconclusive on whether eating burnt toast is bad for you.
At the same time unneeded worrying and stress is definitely bad for your health.
So, the concentration is 1000x less than the carcinogenic threshold in mice, and it's possible that our carcinogenic threshold is even higher than that, but the advice is "be careful how you store your potatoes and don't fry them too much and don't eat charred toast"? Surely the correct response is "it's probably totally fine"
How can I be sure this article isn’t sponsored by Big Toast?
I would never.
That's what I'd expect Big Toast to say!
I would never eat burnt toast, but dark roast coffee, a pint of Guinness I wouldn't think twice. How bad are these comparatively?
The fun part is when you buy some packaged food that has this in it and it comes with a CA sticker saying it's known to cause cancer. Makes you start researching just to find out it's a probable non-issue.
The much greater risk is burnt meat like chargrilled chicken etc. Yes sure, burnt toast is carcinogenic, but relatively speaking it's not going to cause much harm.