Allergenicity assessment of genetically modified crops—what makes sense?

Authors

Richard E. Goodman, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Stefan Vieths, Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Langen, Germany
Hugh A. Sampson, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York
David Hill, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
Motohiro Ebisawa, National Sagamihara Hospital, Sagamihara, Japan
Ronald van Ree, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2008

Citation

Published in Nature Biotechnology 26 (2008), pp. 73 – 81; doi: 10.1038/nbt1343

Comments

Copyright © 2008 Nature Publishing Group. Used by permission.

Abstract

GM crops have great potential to improve food quality, increase harvest yields and decrease dependency on certain chemical pesticides. Before entering the market their safety needs to be scrutinized. This includes a detailed analysis of allergenic risks, as the safety of allergic consumers has high priority. However, not all tests currently being applied to assessing allergenicity have a sound scientific basis. Recent events with transgenic crops reveal the fallacy of applying such tests to GM crops.