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EU – GM SPUD RESEARCH
Searching for unintended compositional changes in GE Potatoes
Louise VT Shepherd & Howard V Davies
November 2006.
Source: ISB News Report http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2006/news06.nov.htm#nov0603
GE risk assessment in the European Union
Prior to market approval in Europe, genetically engineered (GE) crops and products undergo a rigorous risk safety assessment based on a comparative approach. That approach assesses differences between the GEO and its derived products and their non-GE counterparts, the counterparts having a history of safe use.1,2
The risk assessment focuses on a range of parameters, which are described in the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) guidance document.2 Compositional analysis is one of these parameters and the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) is providing guidance on which compounds should be targeted for analysis on a crop by crop basis. The analysis takes into account the crop-specific profile of compounds with nutritional or anti-nutritional characteristics. Significant intentional or unintentional changes in such compounds are likely to drive the need for more detailed risk assessment.3,4 If a trait or traits are introduced with the intention of modifying composition significantly, and where the degree of equivalence cannot be considered substantial, then the safety assessment of characteristics other than those derived from the introduced trait(s) becomes of greater importance.
Whilst the potential for using modern transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic approaches to assess the potential for detecting unintended effects is under evaluation (e.g., the EU "SAFEFOODS" project [http://www.safefoods.nl]), the targeted analysis of key nutrients and anti-nutrients remains the cornerstone of the compositional evaluations.1
For the full report see: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2006/news06.nov.htm#nov0603
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