Potential health effects of foods derived from genetically modified plants: what are the issues?
This paper examines the potential health effects of foods derived from genetically modified (GM) plants. While such an important topic, the database on the likely biological effects of GM foods is woefully inadequate. In the absence of safety studies, the lack of evidence that GM food is unsafe cannot be interpreted as proof that it is safe, particularly as all well-designed GM safety studies published to date and carried out independently of the biotechnology industry have demonstrated potentially worrisome biological effects of GM foods.
However, the complexity of GM foods makes their biological testing difficult. The authors propose a suggested protocol for GM crop/food health risk assessment, which uses comprehensive toxicological/ nutritional methods that will equally be applicable to scientifically examine the veracity of the claimed benefits of genetic manipulation, and screen for its unintended and potentially harmful consequences for human/animal health.