Testing GM Foods for Allergenecity

Genetically modified  (GM) crops must first undergo rigorous safety evaluations before being released in the market. One important concern, which has drawn considerable public attention, is the assessment of transgenic crops for potential allergenicity. However, not all tests being applied in evaluating the allergenicity of GM crops have sound scientific basis, according to a paper published by the journal Nature.

The paper pointed out that certain principles or protocols, including those recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization, are inappropriate for assessing the allergenicity of GM crops. The authors presented recent case studies to illustrate the invalidity of techniques like:

• bioinformatics, wherein the potential allergenicity is predicted by comparing the protein sequences in databases
• use of animal models, which according to the authors, are not applicable for predicting human sensitization to food
•  targeted serum screens, with potentially high rate of false-positive and low probability of true-positive results

The authors concluded that these methods might lead to rejection of safe and beneficial products, excessive costs and possible disruption of trade without any further reduction of risk. Likewise, the use of these methods can lead to introduction of products, which might appear safe, but actually does pose risks to allergic consumers. The authors also evaluated the Codex Alimentarius weight-of-evidence approach to evaluate the potential risk of food allergy.

The abstract of the paper, including links to the full text, is available at http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v26/n1/abs/nbt1343.html#abs