FDA insists genetically modified food safe

MANILA, Philippines - Following an appellate court ruling against the genetic engineering of eggplants, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) insisted yesterday that genetically modified food produced through modern biotechnology are safe.

In FDA Advisory No. 2013-014, FDA acting director Kenneth Hartigan-Go noted that “all food derived from genetically modified (GM) crops in the market have met international food standards and are as safe as and as nutritious as the food derived from conventional crops for direct use as food, feeds and for processing.”

“The FDA hereby reiterates that all GM food products derived from modern biotechnology that are currently on the market have passed food safety assessment based on the UN FAO/WHO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization) CODEX Alimentarius Risk Analysis of Food Derived form Modern Biotechnology and Guidelines for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants,” Go added.

The advisory was issued after the Court of appeals (CA) issued last week a decision stopping the field trial of genetically modified Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) eggplants.

The ruling stemmed from a petition filed by Greenpeace and a farmers’ organization, which believed that the procedure is harmful to humans and the environment.

FDA statistics showed that in 2012, some 17.3 million farmers in 28 countries planted GM crops in 170.3 million hectares of farmland, which is six percent or 10.3 million hectares more than in 2011.

In 2012, 82 percent of total land area planted with cotton was planted to GM cotton.

The global adoption rate for GM soya, GM corn and GM canola was 75 percent, 32 percent and 26 percent, respectively, in 2012.