GE food safety tests found lacking

22-Jul-2007

The food safety trials used to test a GE high lysine corn (LY038) were flawed, claim the Soil & Health Association. The corn has been recommended to be approved as safe for human consumption by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, but the food safety trials compared the corn with another GE corn rather than with regular corn.

The corn was developed mainly as an animal feed and has been genetically engineered to provide high levels of lysine in order to promote animal growth. Testing was limited to feeding chickens and rats raw corn but the corn would be cooked when included in processed food for humans. Cooking the corn produces toxic compounds which may contribute to certain human illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. On this basis the Soil & Health Association plead for new tests to be developed and call on the New Zealand Government to reject the approval of the corn for human consumption.

The full press release can be seen here.