Annotated Bibliography Entry
Reference:
Royal Society, UK 2002.
Title: Genetically modified plants for food use and human health – an
update
Authors: The Royal Society (UK)
Publisher: The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London,
SW1Y 5AG, U.K.
Publication details: February 2002, 19p.
Summary
Recommendations
Table of Contents
Annex: Recommendations from the Royal Society 1998 report
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Summary
In 1998
the Royal Society published a report, Genetically modified plants for food
use, which concluded that the use of genetically modified (GM) plants had
the potential to offer benefits in agricultural practice, food quality,
nutrition and health, but that there were several aspects of GM technology
that required further consideration. The Royal Society appointed a group of
experts to update this report based on research since 1998. This update
focuses on the effects that GM foods might have on human health and the use of
the principle of substantial equivalence in GM food safety testing.
Few, if
any, GM food products are currently available to buy in Europe and the UK.
Commercial varieties produced elsewhere, in the USA and Canada for example,
are designed to confer resistance to pests and to produce tolerance to
specific herbicides. Over the next decade biotechnology will be aimed at
improving many qualities of crops, including nutrition and agronomic
performance. We support the continuation of research in this area as valuable
in itself and as the only way to assess the true potential of GM plants.
We
endorse the conclusions of the 21st report of the Royal Commission on
Environmental Pollution (1998) that scientific assessments must inform policy
decisions but cannot pre-empt them, and that public opinion must be taken into
account throughout. The Royal
Society recognises the concerns expressed with regard to the technology and
believes that these should continue to be addressed through collaboration and
dialogue between industrialists, public sector scientists, regulatory
authorities and non-government organisations. It is important that the public
debate about GM food takes account of wider issues than the science alone, but
we wish to stress the importance of informing debate with sound science
Food safety assessments
We
have some concerns about the regulatory processes governing the development
and use of GM plants. We agree with the FAO/WHO 2000 report that the criteria
for safety assessments should be made explicit and objective and that
differences in the application of the principle of substantial equivalence,
for example in different Member States of the European
Union, do need to be resolved. We welcome the development of consensus
documents by the OECD for
different crops so that the principle of substantial equivalence can be
applied uniformly. It may not be necessary or feasible to subject all GM foods
to the full range of evaluations, but those conditions that have to be
satisfied should be defined.
Future food safety assessments-research needs
In
the future safety assessments of GM and non-GM foods could make use of various
new profiling techniques. Long-term research is required before these
techniques can be applied. We recommend that research should continue to
develop such technologies and thereby define the ‘normal’ compositions of
conventional plants. We welcome the funding initiatives already put in place
by the European Union Framework V programme and the UK’s Food Standards
Agency. Collaboration between the chemical industry, academia and regulators
to develop techniques and share reference data will help ensure that agreement
is reached on interpretation of results and use of new technologies.
Nutritional content-unintended effects
One
potential application of GM technology is to improve the nutritional quality
of crops. It is possible that GM technology could lead to unpredicted harmful
changes in the nutritional status of foods (MRC 2000). Such alterations might
also occur in the course of conventional breeding. Nutritional assessments are
made as part of the safety assessment of GM crops, but more detailed
guidelines would be beneficial. Vulnerable groups such as infants need special
guidelines. To date no GM food for use in infant products has been submitted
for approval. Detailed guidelines and legislation already exist for infant
formulas and follow-on foods but it is not clear how they interact with GM
food regulations. Therefore we recommend that both the Government and the
European Commission should ensure that these two sets of regulations are
complementary. Guidelines such as those described by COMA (1996) for
nutritional assessment of infant formulas and more recently by Aggett et al.
(2001) should be adopted for both novel and GM foods.
Allergenicity
There
is at present no evidence that GM foods cause allergic reactions. The
allergenic risks posed by GM plants are in principle no greater than those
posed by conventionally derived crops or by plants introduced from other areas
of the world. One shortcoming in the current screening methods, which applies
to both conventional and GM foods, is that there is no formal assessment of
the allergenic risks posed by inhalation of pollen and dusts. We therefore
recommend that current decision trees be expanded to encompass inhalant as
well as food allergies.
Plant viral DNA
Plant
viral DNA sequences are commonly used in the construction of the genes
inserted into GM plants, and concern has been expressed about this. Having
reviewed the scientific evidence we conclude that the risks to human health
associated with the use of specific viral DNA sequences in GM plants are
negligible.
DNA consumption
One
concern associated with GM foods is the possibility that genes introduced into
GM plants might become incorporated into the consumer’s genetic make-up.
Since the Royal Society’s 1998 report various papers have been published on
this topic. The results need to be viewed in the context of a normal diet,
which for humans and animals comprises large amounts of DNA. This DNA is
derived not only from the cells of food sources, but also from any
contaminating microbes and viruses. Given the very long history of DNA
consumption from a wide variety of sources, we conclude that such consumption
poses no significant risk to human health, and that additional ingestion of GM
DNA has no effect.
Recommendations
1. We recognise the valuable potential and current impact of
plant biotechnology on the quality of food and its importance in the
development of new crops. We support continuation of research on GM plants as
valuable in itself and as the only way to assess the true potential of GM. We
have the following recommendations.
2. Safety
assessments should continue to consider potential effects of the
transformation process. The
phenotypic characteristics to be compared between foods derived from GM plants
and their conventional counterparts should be defined. It may not be necessary
or feasible to subject all GM foods to the full range of evaluations but those
conditions that have to be satisfied should be defined.
3.
Research should be undertaken to develop modern profiling techniques and to
define the ‘normal’ compositions of conventional plants. The working group
welcomes the funding initiatives already put in place by the European Union
Framework V programme and the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA).
4. The
biotechnology industry should collaborate with academia and regulators to
develop and share suitable reference data sets. This will help ensure that the
new technologies are wisely applied and that agreement is reached on the
appropriate interpretation of the data that they will generate.
5. The UK
Government should review the enforcement of the regulations on infant foods
and GM foods to ensure these regulations are complementary.
6. The
European Commission should consider the use of novel and GM foods in infant
foods as part of its review of Directive 91/321/EEC that covers infant
formulas and follow-on foods.
7. The
current decision trees used to assess allergy should be expanded to encompass
inhalant as well as food allergies.
8. In the
longer term, should GM foods be re-introduced into the market in the UK, we
suggest that the Food Standards Agency considers whether post-marketing
surveillance should be part of the overall safety strategy for allergies,
especially of high-risk groups such as infants and individuals in ‘atopic’
families.
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Table of Contents
Preparation
of this report 2
Summary
3
1
Introduction 4
2
The use of substantial equivalence in the safety assessment of GM food 5
3
Possible effects of GM food on human nutrition 7
4
Possible allergic responses to GM foods 7
5
Potential effects on human health resulting from the use of viral DNA in plants
8
6
The fate of GM plant DNA in the digestive system 9
7
Conclusions and recommendations 10
8
References 11
Appendix
1 Press Release 14
Appendix
2 List of respondees to the study 14
Appendix
3 Legislation 15
Appendix
4 Recommendations from the Royal Society 1998 report Genetically modified
plants for food use 16 (See Annex)
Appendix
5 Glossary 18
Other
recent Royal Society reports 19
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ANNEX
Appendix
4 Recommendations from the Royal Society 1998 report Genetically modified
plants for food use
New Genetics, Food &
Agriculture: Scientific Discoveries - Societal Dilemmas