The risks of genetically modified crops

Food regulatory authorities require that GM foods receive individual pre-market safety assessments. Also, the principle of ‘substantial equivalence’ is used. This means that an existing food is compared with its genetically modified counterpart to find any differences between the existing food and the new product. The assessment investigates:

• Toxicity (using similar methods to those used for conventional foods)
• Tendency to provoke any allergic reaction
• Stability of the inserted gene
• Whether there is any nutritional deficit or change in the GM food
• Any other unintended effects of the gene insertion.

A GM food will only be approved for sale if it is safe and is as nutritious as its conventional counterparts. The safety of GM foods is still being debated, as it is impossible to predict all of the potential effects on human health and the environment. Some public health experts, however, advocate caution and believe that ‘we are only at the "scientific starting line", we simply don’t know whether GM foods are safe’. Stephen Leeder, ‘Genetically modified foods - food for thought’