Biotech Updates

Tomato Study Provides More Evidence of GM Food Safety

April 10, 2014

A new study published in The Plant Genome journal confirms that GM and conventional tomatoes have no significant biochemical differences. The research team, led by Cornell University professor Owen Hoekenga, extracted about 1,000 small molecules with several biochemical functions of delayed ripening GM tomatoes. Then they compared the metabolic profile with those of non-transgenic heirloom tomato varieties. Results showed that the there were no significant differences except for those molecules involved in fruit ripening.

The findings of the study address the consumers' concern about unintended effects of genetic modification in GM foods.

For more information, visit http://reason.com/blog/2014/04/07/genetically-modified-tomatoes-study (news article) and https://www.crops.org/publications/tpg/abstracts/7/1/plantgenome2013.06.0021 (research article).