Agricultural biotechnology safety assessment

• Published in: Zhōnghuá yùfáng-yīxué zázhì Vol. 49; no. 1; p. 78
• Main Authors: McClain, Scott, Jones, Wendelyn, He, Xiaoyun, Ladics, Gregory, Bartholomaeus, Andrew, Raybould, Alan, Lutter, Petra, Xu, Haibin, Wang, Xue
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Chinese
• Published: China 01-01-2015
• Subjects: Agriculture; Animal Feed; Animals; Biotechnology; China; Consumer Product Safety; Food, Genetically Modified; Humans; Models, Animal; Plants, Genetically Modified; Safety; China
• ISSN: 0253-9624

Genetically modified (GM) crops were first introduced to farmers in 1995 with the intent to provide better crop yield and meet the increasing demand for food and feed. GM crops have evolved to include a thorough safety evaluation for their use in human food and animal feed. Safety considerations begin at the level of DNA whereby the inserted GM DNA is evaluated for its content, position and stability once placed into the crop genome. The safety of the proteins coded by the inserted DNA and potential effects on the crop are considered, and the purpose is to ensure that the transgenic novel proteins are safe from a toxicity, allergy, and environmental perspective. In addition, the grain that provides the processed food or animal feed is also tested to evaluate its nutritional content and identify unintended effects to the plant composition when warranted. To provide a platform for the safety assessment, the GM crop is compared to non-GM comparators in what is typically referred to as composition equivalence tes