The next generation of genetically modified food products are more likely to be accepted if they are proven safe and have clear consumer benefits, a leading food scientist has said.
Prof Fergal O'Gara, director of Biomerit Research Centre in UCC, said GM food-producers had changed emphasis to developing products where the consumer benefit was more obvious.
Speaking last night at a Science Week Ireland lecture on "What's Biotechnology Doing for Our Food?", he said the first generation of GM products - herbicide and pesticide-resistant crops - were designed to improve yields for farmers, and had no obvious consumer benefit.
Prof O'Gara added that this contributed to the concerns of consumer groups, the "slow take-up" of these foods in Europe, and the controversy over the exploitation of biotechnology to develop GM foods.
Newer biotechnology products were aimed at guaranteeing safety and quality, he said, in the lecture at Dublin City University. "New biotechnology research is geared to developing products with direct benefits to consumers such as adding nutrients to foods traditionally lacking in those nutrients, for example, adding vitamin A gene to rice," he said.
Prof O'Gara said developments from biotechnology were contributing to improving food quality and safety in a number of ways. In contrast to those who disputed the merits of these technologies, he said the benefits included producing cheese which guaranteed that no infectious agents from animals would enter the food chain; developing an environmentally friendly means of controlling disease in plants, and creating techniques of detecting viruses or bacteria in food.