Genetically modified food safety issues
Abstract
As we all know, modern biotechnology has brought human numerous benefits: Through the application of biotechnology, a broad and significant increase of food production can be happily seen at global agricultural production. But when we enjoy the enormous benefits of the GM food, a new but alarming problem also came that if these food is safe enough for people? if something seriously happened, what can we do? Maybe you can find some answer in this thesis.
Chapter 1 Introduction
What is biotechnology?Maybe not too mang people know its definition accurately.Biotechnology is a technology which can reform and make the use of the natural lives on the ingredient of them by taking advantage of the research finds in life sciences which can greatly follow the will of people.In its purest form,the term \refers to the use of living organisms or their products to modify human health and the human environment.
Biotechnology in one form or another has flourished since prehistoric times. When the first human beings realized that they could plant their own crops and breed their own animals, they learned to use biotechnology. The discovery that fruit juices fermented into wine, or that milk could be converted into cheese or yogurt, or that beer could be made by fermenting solutions of malt and hops began the study of biotechnology. When the first bakers found that they could make a soft, spongy bread rather than a firm, thin cracker, they were acting as fledgling biotechnologists. The first animal breeders, realizing that different physical traits could be either magnified or lost by mating appropriate pairs of animals, engaged in the manipulations of biotechnology.
Chapter 2 Status of genetically modified foods
As we all know,modern biotechnology has brought human numerous benifits:Through the application of biotechnology, a broad and significant increase of food production can be happily seen at global agricultural production.Since 1983 when the first time human got transgenic tobacco, potato by using recombinant DNA technology,the plant genetic engineering technology in the world has achieved rapid development of transgenic plants for research and development,which has made a series of remarkable progress
and
has
Successfully
nurtured
a
number
of
crops
with
disease-resistance,insecticide resistance and even an incredible high-yield.with the help of them,we can feed another more than millions of people,According to statistics,up to now ,no less than 1.6 billion people have benefits from biotechnology.in the area,our mother country China has made tremendous contributions to the world's biotechnology.what must be mentioned is BT cotton and hybrid rice of Yuan Longping.
Commercialize genetically modified crops dates from the year of 1996,including Soybeans, cotton, cereals and oilseed rape.GM crops now occupy 10% of global arable land. In 2010,81% of worldwide soybean, 64% cotton, 29% and 23% of the grain is genetically modified oilseed rape.Totally,29 countries grow GM products all over the world.the top three country with the largest area of cultivation is United States, Brazil and Argentina.The problem About the safety of GM products has been controversial.Genetically modified food will bring human and animal allergens and toxins of unknown.
Chapter 3 GM food safety issues
International consensus has been reached on the principles regarding evaluation of the food safety of genetically modified plants. The concept of substantial equivalence has been developed as part of a safety evaluation framework, based on the idea that existing foods can serve as a basis for comparing the properties of genetically modified foods with the appropriate counterpart. Application of the concept is not a safety assessment per se, but helps to identify similarities and differences between the existing food and the new product, which are then subject to further toxicological investigation. Substantial equivalence is a starting point in the safety evaluation, rather than an endpoint of the assessment. Consensus on practical application of the principle should be further elaborated. Experiences with the safety testing of newly inserted proteins and of whole genetically modified foods are reviewed, and limitations of current test methodologies are discussed. The development and validation of new profiling methods such as DNA microarray technology, proteomics, and metabolomics for the identification and characterization of unintended effects, which may occur as a result of the genetic modification, is recommended. The assessment of the allergenicity of newly inserted proteins and of marker genes is discussed. An issue that will gain importance in the near future is that of post-marketing surveillance of the foods derived from genetically modified crops. It is concluded, among others that, that application of the principle of substantial equivalence has proven adequate, and that no alternative adequate safety assessment strategies are available.
At an early stage in the introduction of recombinant-DNA technology in modern plant breeding and biotechnological food production systems, efforts began to define internationally harmonized evaluation strategies for the safety of foods derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Two years after the first successful transformation experiment in plants (tobacco) in 1988, the International Food Biotechnology Council (IFBC) published the first report on the issue of safety assessment of these new varieties (IFBC, 1990). The comparative approach described in this report has laid the basis for later safety evaluation strategies. Other
organizations, such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) have developed further guidelines for safety assessment which have obtained broad international consensus among experts on food safety evaluation.
At 1993. the OECD formulated the concept of substantial equivalence as a guiding tool for the assessment of genetically modified foods, which has been further elaborated in the following years (OECD, 1993; OECD, 1996; OECD, 1998; Figure 1). The concept of substantial equivalence is part of a safety evaluation framework based on the idea that existing foods can serve as a basis for comparing the properties of a genetically modified food with the appropriate counterpart. The existing food supply is considered to be safe, as experienced by a long history of use, although it is recognized that foods may contain many anti-nutrients and toxicants which, at certain levels of consumption, may induce deleterious effects in humans and animals. Application of the concept is not a safety assessment per se, but helps to identify similarities and potential differences between the existing food and the new product, which is then subject to further toxicological investigation. Three scenarios are envisioned in which the genetically modified plant or food would be (i) substantially equivalent; (ii) substantially equivalent except for the inserted trait; or (iii) not equivalent at all. A compositional analysis of key components, including key nutrients and natural toxicants, is the basis of assessment of substantial equivalence, in addition to phenotypic and agronomic characteristics of the genetically modified plant.
In the first scenario, no further specific testing is required as the product has been characterized as substantially equivalent to a traditional counterpart whose consumption is considered to be safe, for example, starch from potato. In the second scenario, substantial equivalence would apply except for the inserted trait, and so the focus of the safety testing is on this trait, for example, an insecticidal protein of genetically modified tomato. Safety tests include specific toxicity testing according to the nature and function of the newly expressed protein; potential occurence of unintended effects; potential for gene transfer from genetically modified foods to human/animal gut flora; the potential allergenicity of the newly inserted traits; and the
生物技术转基因食品安全的英文论文
