Food safety authority moves to reassure public over GM foods

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has attempted to reassure the public that new genetically modified (GM) foodstuffs coming onto the Irish market are being rigorously vetted by an expert scientific committee. This follows independent research suggesting some GM foods could damage the immune system of rats and stunt their growth.

Monsanto, which is the only company testing GM crops in Ireland, strenuously denied the findings indicated the likelihood of any potential harmful effect in humans from any genetically engineered foods it has developed.

The Green MEP, Ms Nuala Ahern, said however that the case for a moratorium pending fuller evaluation of the potential effects of GM foods was reinforced by the World in Action television programme which featured the research findings of Prof Arpad Pusztai at the Rowett Institute in Scotland. These foods should be subjected to lengthy clinical trials similar to those used to test new drugs, she said.

The FSAI chief executive Dr Patrick Wall defended the effectiveness of its scientific committee. It was, he said, liaising with other international expert groups and "carrying out assessments from a food safety perspective, solely with the protection and safety of the consumer as its fundamental aim".

He added: "Currently, there is no scientific evidence that any existing (GM) products licensed within the EU are unsafe for human consumption."

Dr Wall said, nonetheless, the expert group would have to fully study the findings by the Rowett Institute. These relate to a potato crop with a gene inserted it to make it resistant to an insecticide. It generates a lectin protein known to have toxic effects on mammals. The results indicated, at the very least, the need for "more transparency" from companies developing GM foods, according to Prof Pusztai, who led the research.

However, Monsanto's business manager in Ireland Dr Patrick O'Reilly said no company would use such lectin proteins and they were "not present in any of the crops coming to commercialisation". He rejected suggestions the research reflected an absence of long-term mammalian testing of such products.

The programme had increased doubts about the use of this gene technology "in its present undertested form", Ms Ahern said. The impression had been given that food had been subjected to the same rigorous testing as new drugs. "Now we see the reality is different," Ms Ahern said. Supermarkets, she added, should come clean and state where they stood on this critical consumer issue. "There is a case for banning these foods pending mandatory comprehensive clinical tests."

The Consumer Association of Ireland chairman, Dr Peter Dargan, said the study underlined the argument that regulation of GM foods must be effective. Such foods might have enormous potential but were relatively new to the market. In such circumstances, they should be subjected to the fullest possible evaluation for any negative health effects.

Monsanto yesterday said the World in Action programme was flawed. "The GM potatoes produced at the Rowett Institute would not have been made by Monsanto, and would not have passed the strict regulatory systems" applied in Britain and Ireland.

The Rowett Institute yesterday confirmed that the potato with a gene added to confer insecticide resistance which stunted growth and impaired the immune system of rats was not intended to be commercially developed for human consumption.

These proteins are highly resistant to digestion, but can be assimilated into the body. Some are powerful growth triggers which mimic hormones and change the bacterial composition of the gut. The study, commissioned by the Scottish Office, was to investigate the role of lectins, which might be used for insertion into plants to increase resistance to insecticides.

Calls for a ban on all GM foods based on these findings were premature, according to the director of the institute, Prof Philip James.