Friday, June 24, 2005
WHO study: GM food in supermarkets is safe, but new foods need testing
Associated Press
Geneva, June 23, 2005
Genetically modified foods on supermarket shelves are as safe as their conventional counterparts, but new GM products should be carefully tested, the UN health agency said on Thursday.
"Every time we put a new gene into a plant we are doing a new thing that must be thoroughly evaluated," said Jorgen Schlundt, who heads the food safety department of the World Health Organization. Schlundt presented a 76-page WHO study on the impact of food biotechnology on human health and the promise developments could hold for improving nutrition globally.
"To date, the consumption of GM foods has not caused any known negative health effects," WHO said. "GM foods currently available on the international market have passed risk assessments and are not likely to, nor have been shown to, present risks for human health," the study said.
However, the potential risks of any new transgenic food should be judged on a case-by-case basis as many countries are doing, the study said.
Typically in GMO foods scientists have changed DNA sequences in the genetic makeup of a plant to add a specific trait, such as insect-resistance, from another organism.
Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, also need to be checked for their impact on the environment, WHO said.
WHO said it is working with other U.N. agencies to help developing countries examine GM food so they can use it for the benefit of their own people.
"One GM plant can be beneficial to the environment and need 40 percent less pesticides in one country but require more in another," Schlundt said.
The study said GM foods are tested far more thoroughly than other "new food" such as products modified with chemicals. "There is a big mistake in the public discussion in that people think that GM foods are (the only) totally new type of food," Schlundt said.
Even traditional foods may pose dangers, he said, recalling the discovery three years ago by Swedish scientists that many foods, particularly fried foods rich in carbohydrates, contained elevated levels of acrylamide, a chemical listed as a possible carcinogen and previously not known to be present in food.
Since major GM foods and feeds were first introduced in the mid-1990s, the list of those marketed internationally has grown to include strains of maize, soybeans, rape (canola) seed and cottonseed.
Other genetically modified foods that have been released in a limited number of countries include papaya, potatoes, rice, squash, sugar beets and tomatoes.
"It is estimated that GM crops cover almost 4 percent of total global arable land," the study said.
Some 7 million farmers in 18 countries grew the crops last year, but the their use was concentrated in a mere seven countries, it said.
The United States is far out in front in the amount of genetically modified crops, the study said. Last year it had 47.6 million hectares (117.6 million acres) planted, 59 percent of the total transgenic crop area of the world.
Argentina was in second place with 20 percent, followed by Canada and Brazil with 6 percent each, China 5 percent, Paraguay 2 percent and South Africa 1 percent.
The WHO study said the dominant trait for commercialized GM crops in the past nine years has been to make crops tolerant to herbicides used on weeds. Resistance to insects was the second major concern. It said it expected increasing work on improving the nutritional value of food, as has already been done with vitamin A-enhanced rice, so-called "golden rice."
Genetic modification also could be used to reduce the allergens or toxins that some foods contain, the study said.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.