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Package 2: GM Foods and Toxicology of GM Foods.

Product chosen: Sugar Rolls

Possible GM ingredient: Wheat flour and Corn flour.

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Part 1: Genetically Modified Food / Genetically Engineered Food.

Task 1 of HFLA:

What is GM Food?

They are food ingredients produced from traditional plant that were cross bred with varieties of the same species in order to obtained certain desired qualities in the final product. This involves natural genes, as it comes from the same organism species. Example: A disease resistant wheat is cross bred with a high yield type of wheat.

Genetically engineered food may involve the exchange of genes between unrelated species that cannot naturally exchange genes with each other. Example: Planting scorpion toxin genes into maize or fish antifreeze genes into tomatoes. This may result to a possibility that the scorpion toxin may get to the consumers although the scorpion gene has become part of the maize gene.

For further reading, visit this website: http://www.geneticfoodalert.supanet.com/gmfood1.htm


Main principle of GM process

It often involves the isolation, manipulation and reintroduction of DNA into cells or model organisms, usually to express a protein. The aim is to introduce new characteristics such as making a crop resistant to a herbicide, introducing a novel trait, or producing a new protein or enzyme.

Since a protein is specified by a segment of DNA called a gene, future versions of that protein can be modified by changing the gene's underlying DNA. One way to do this is to isolate the piece of DNA containing the gene, precisely cut the gene out, and then reintroduce (splice) the gene into a different DNA segment. Together with ligase, which can join fragments of DNA together, restriction enzymes formed the initial basis of recombinant DNA technology.

Terminology
"Transgenic organism" is now the preferred term for genetically modified organisms with extra-genome (foreign genetic) information, as opposed to "genetically engineered" or "genetically modified" organisms (which may refer to changes made within the genome such as amplification or deletion of genes).

For further reading, refer to this website: http://www.gm-news.co.uk/

Here's a simple diagram to that explains genetic modification process.




Are GM Foods safe for consumption?

Based on Genetic Modification Advisory Committee ( Singapore )

Foods produced from GMOs can be as safe as foods from non-GMOs. Since the first GM food was commercialized more than a decade ago, there had been no known reports of hazards resulting from the consumption of GM foods.

Another report was issued in 2005 by the International Council of Science (ICSU), an organization whose membership consists of 111 national academies of science and 29 scientific unions. After comprehensive analyses of 50 science-based reviews, the ICSU concludes that “currently available genetically modified foods are safe to eat.” The World Health Organization agrees that current varieties of GM foods "are not likely to present risks for human health.”

GM foods commercially available in Singapore have undergone various lines of scrutiny for safety.

1) Under international food practices, before a GM food can be considered for commercialization, its producer must subject it to rigorous tests on quality, allergenicity, toxicity, composition, and nutritional value.
2) All food products derived from GMOs must be assessed to be safe by the competent national regulatory bodies of the exporting countries.

3) In accordance to the GMAC’s Guidelines on the Release of Agriculture-Related GMOs, applications for import or release of agriculture-related GMOs in Singapore are first submitted to GMAC, where an expert scientific committee examines the GMOs' origin, the experimental procedures used to create them, and the methods used to prove that they are safe for consumption. GMAC’s endorsement of a GM product will be one of the main factors that the AVA will take into account when considering the final approval.

In addition, AVA monitors the presence of GM foods in our market through regular testing in their laboratories.

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Daphne Saihah Xinni Genie Winston

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