Foods reformed by Biotech

In the last five years, the area under transgenic crops has increased enormously in USA, China and some other advanced countries. In USA, 35% of corn and 55% of all soybean planted were transgenic in 1999. As soybean and corn are used as ingredients in a wide range of food products, many foods currently contain ingredients  derived from genetically engineered or transgenic crops. The area under transgenic crops will continue to rise and thus will result in more food derived from transgenic crops. The foods derived from transgenic crops are called ' GM foods' or genetically modified foods.

Health and food safety concerns have been raised to ensure the safety of GM foods throughout the development and commercialization of transgenic crops. The main concerns  about the potential of GM foods/ crops relate to:

Increase in toxins
Introduction of allergens
Changes in levels of essential nutrients
Reduced efficacy of antobiotics
Issues of food safety from GM crops came with a 3-years study conducted by Dr. Arpad Pusztai at Rowett Research Institute, Scotland in 1999, who showed partial suppression of growth and of development of immune system in rats fed on GM potato.

Dr. March Lappe (1999) showed that certain GM foods (GM soybean ) have lower levels of vital nutrients especially phytoestrogen and isoflavones which protect the body from heart diseases and cancer.


Nordlee( 1996)  reported that Brazilnut (Bertholletica excelsa) genes in soya caused epileptic fits.similarly, Shrimp gene in strawberry induced allergic response.

During early course of development of trangenic crops, a concern was raised that transfer of antibiotic resistance transgene from plants  to pathogene in environment or in the gut of humans or animals would compromise antibiotic therapy by rendering pathogens immune to the effects of the antibiotic.

On the other hand genetically modified crops are being developed with enhanced nutritional qualities such as increased iron (Fe) or vitamin A content in edible plant parts (e.g., 'Golden rice' or 'Miracle rice' rich in vitamin A and iron). Iron fortification of rice  has been done by soybean ferritin gene.

The US food and drug Administration (USFDA) established extensive guidelines to address the concerns and ensure the safe commercial introduction  of GM crops for use in food and feed. These guidelines have been developed through evaluation of scientific data consultation with experts from around the world. Foods containing GM crops meeting the FDA guidelines are deemed to be as safe and nutritious as their non- GM counter parts already in market.

There have been debates in many countries on whether or not, it should be mandatory to label the genetically engineered food. In USA, no such mandatory lebelling has been considered necessary, unless the transgenic food or GM foods differs significantly in composition or is allergic, e.g., tomato having significantly reduced content of vitamin C should be lebelled. Similarly , tomato having a gene from peanut should disclose this as peanut contains allergens. Transgenic canola (oil seed rape ) having a gene of brazilnut (being allergenic) is considered to have no commercial utility and hence should be lebelled for consumers
GM Foods safety guidelines established using current scientific knowledge are not static and will continue to refined as new knowledge is gained in areas related to food safety .