Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified Foods

The development of novel foods produced through agricultural biotechnology is a complex three-stage process: gene discovery, line selection, and product advancement to commercialization. The safety of genetically modified foods is an integral part of the overall developmental process throughout all of the stages. In the discovery stage, the safety of the gene, its source, and the gene products must be considered. If any questions arise at this stage, these questions must be answered later in the developmental process. During the line selection stage, the genetically modified seed progresses through a variety of greenhouse and field trials. At this stage, the biological and agronomic equivalence of the genetically modified crop to its traditional counterpart must be compared. While the evaluations made during this stage are not specifically directed toward a safety assessment, many potential products with unusual characteristics are eliminated during this stage of development. However, the elimination of products with unusual agronomic or biological characteristics enhances the likelihood that a safe product will be generated. Finally, in the pre-commercialization stage, the genetically modified product undergoes a detailed safety assessment process. This process focuses on the safety of the gene products associated with the introduced gene and any other likely toxicological or anti-nutrient factors associated with the source of the novel gene and the crop to which it was introduced. The safety of the genetically modified product for both food and feed uses is considered. Thus far, all of the genetically modified products brought into the marketplace have been subjected to such an intensive safety assessment. The safety assessment data have been reviewed by regulatory authorities around the world. The current generation of genetically modified products are quite safe for human and feed animal consumption.     

实质等同性原则和转基因食品的安全性评价

讨论转基因食品安全性评价中的一些热点话题：现代生物技术与传统育种比较,整体食物的动物毒性实验,实质等同性原则及其局限性,食品成分安全性评价,食品成分的预料外改变,抗生素抗性标记基因,过敏性问题,标签问题等。     

遗传工程食物的健康安全性问题——介绍20002001年FAO/WHO联合专家顾问委员会的结论意见与建议

本文介绍联合国专家有关遗传工程植物性食物对人体健康安全问题的结论性意见和建议。由于世界各国公众对转基因生物作为食物的安全问题日益担心,联合国世界粮农组织(FAO)和世界卫生组织(WHO)在2000年和2001年共同召集了两次FAOWHO联合专家顾问委员会会议,会后公布了两份详尽的报告。针对当前一些有争议的问题,联合专家委员会提出了合理的并具权威性的结论意见和建议,其中包括实质等同性概念、对健康的长期效应、抗菌素抗性基因问题、潜在的过敏原性及其新修订的评估策略———树型判定法。     

Safety assessment of genetically modified plants with deliberately altered composition

The development and marketing of ‘novel’ genetically modified (GM) crops in which composition has been deliberately altered poses a challenge to the European Union (EU)'s risk assessment processes, which are based on the concept of substantial equivalence with a non‐GM comparator. This article gives some examples of these novel GM crops and summarizes the conclusions of a report that was commissioned by the European Food Safety Authority on how the EU's risk assessment processes could be adapted to enable their safety to be assessed.     

Molecular characterization for food safety assessment of a genetically modified late blight resistant potato: an unusual case

Standard food safety assessments of genetically modified crops require a thorough molecular characterization of the novel DNA as inserted into the plant that is intended for commercialization, as well as a comparison of agronomic and nutritional characteristics of the genetically modified to the non-modified counterpart. These characterization data are used to identify any unintended changes in the inserted DNA or in the modified plant that would require assessment for safety in addition to the assessment of the intended modification. An unusual case of an unintended effect discovered from the molecular characterization of a genetically modified late blight resistant potato developed for growing in Bangladesh and Indonesia is presented here. Not only was a significant portion of the plasmid vector backbone DNA inserted into the plant along with the intended insertion of an R-gene for late blight resistance, but the inserted DNA was split into two separate fragments and inserted into two separate chromosomes. One fragment carries the R-gene and the other fragment carries the NPTII selectable marker gene and the plasmid backbone DNA. The implications of this for the food safety assessment of this late blight resistant potato are considered.

     

Assuring the safety of genetically modified (GM) foods: the importance of an holistic,integrative approach

Genes change continuously by natural mutation and recombination enabling man to select and breed crops having the most desirable traits such as yield or flavour. Genetic modification (GM) is a recent development which allows specific genes to be identified, isolated, copied and inserted into other plants with a high level of specificity. The food safety considerations for GM crops are basically the same as those arising from conventionally bred crops, very few of which have been subject to any testing yet are generally regarded as being safe to eat. In contrast a rigorous safety testing paradigm has been developed for GM crops, which utilises a systematic, stepwise and holistic approach. The resultant science based process, focuses on a classical evaluation of the toxic potential of the introduced novel trait and the wholesomeness of the transformed crop. In addition, detailed consideration is given to the history and safe use of the parent crop as well as that of the gene donor. The overall safety evaluation is conducted under the concept known as substantial equivalence which is enshrined in all international crop biotechnology guidelines. This provides the framework for a comparative approach to identify the similarities and differences between the GM product and its comparator which has a known history of safe use. By building a detailed profile on each step in the transformation process, from parent to new crop, and by thoroughly evaluating the significance from a safety perspective, of any differences that may be detected, a very comprehensive matrix of information is constructed which enables the conclusion as to whether the GM crop, derived food or feed is as safe as its traditional counterpart. Using this approach in the evaluation of more than 50 GM crops which have been approved worldwide, the conclusion has been that foods and feeds derived from genetically modified crops are as safe and nutritious as those derived from traditional crops. The lack of any adverse effects resulting from the production and consumption of GM crops grown on more than 300 million cumulative acres over the last 5 years supports these safety conclusions.     

The development and standardization of testing methods for genetically modified organisms and their derived products

As the worldwide commercialization of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) increases and consumers concern the safety of GMOs, many countries and regions are issuing labeling regulations on GMOs and their products. Analytical methods and their standardization for GM ingredients in foods and feed are essential for the implementation of labeling regulations. To date, the GMO testing methods are mainly based on the inserted DNA sequences and newly produced proteins in GMOs. This paper presents an overview of GMO testing methods as well as their standardization.     

转基因动物及其产品的安全评估方法研究进展

目前,转基因动物技术发展迅速并广泛应用于食品、医药、农业和生物材料等众多领域,带来了巨大的经济效益和社会效益,且发展潜力巨大。同时,转基因动物及其产品的安全性问题也日益突出,表现在转基因动物本身及产品安全性和环境安全性两个主要方面。"实质等同性原则"是国际上转基因动物安全性评价的基本原则。从转基因动物及其产品作为食品、药品等的安全性评估;从转基因动物对生态环境安全和影响的评估和非预期效应的评估等三个方面进行了阐述,并对我国转基因动物评价体系的构建提出建议。     

Hypothesis Testing of Inclusion of the Tolerance Interval for the Assessment of Food Safety

In the testing of food quality and safety, we contrast the contents of the newly proposed food (genetically modified food) against those of conventional foods. Because the contents vary largely between crop varieties and production environments, we propose a two-sample test of substantial equivalence that examines the inclusion of the tolerance intervals of the two populations, the population of the contents of the proposed food, which we call the target population, and the population of the contents of the conventional food, which we call the reference population. Rejection of the test hypothesis guarantees that the contents of the proposed foods essentially do not include outliers in the population of the contents of the conventional food. The existing tolerance interval (TI₀) is constructed to have at least a pre-specified level of the coverage probability. Here, we newly introduce the complementary tolerance interval (TI₁) that is guaranteed to have at most a pre-specified level of the coverage probability. By applying TI₀ and TI₁ to the samples from the target population and the reference population respectively, we construct a test statistic for testing inclusion of the two tolerance intervals. To examine the performance of the testing procedure, we conducted a simulation that reflects the effects of gene and environment, and residual from a crop experiment. As a case study, we applied the hypothesis testing to test if the distribution of the protein content of rice in Kyushu area is included in the distribution of the protein content in the other areas in Japan.     

转基因食品安全性研究进展

转基因食品的安全性在世界范围内备受关注,近年来,已经成为公众争论的焦点。本文简要综述了转基因食品的现状和安全性,并介绍了我国政府对转基因食品的态度。此外,还对转基因食品的发展前景作了简要展望。