GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS

Food crops have been genetically improved since the beginning of agriculture by selecting and breeding seeds from superior plants. These traditional breeding methods resulted in significant increases in crop productivity and food and feed quality. More recently, it has become possible to introduce DNA directly into crop plants to produce specific genetic modifications; the techniques used are commonly referred to as plant biotechnology, genetic engineering, or recombinant DNA methodology.

Plant biotechnology can reduce a number of undesirable food components, such as one of the major allergenic proteins in rice or the major allergens in peanut or soybeans. Other efforts to eliminate allergens in foods by modifying their amino acid sequences have also proven successful. Efforts to reduce or eliminate other undesirable components of foods, e.g., glucosinolates in canola meal, protease inhibitors in beans, glycoalkaloids in potatoes and mycotoxins in corn, are being evaluated. Components such as caffeine from coffee beans can be eliminated or reduced to provide a coffee with no or a very low caffeine level without using chemical extraction.

Regards

Joseph Mareddy

Assistant Managing Editor

Journal of Plant Biochemistry and physiology