GMW: Genetically Altered Corn May Cause Diabetes

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GMW: Genetically Altered Corn May Cause Diabetes

" GM WATCH " <info

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:10:58 +0100

 

 

 

 

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1.Genetically Altered Corn May Cause Diabetes

2.Food code not grounded on best available science

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1.Genetically Altered Corn May Cause Diabetes

DiabeticNews.com, June 14, 2006

http://diabeticnews.com/2006/06/14/genetically-altered-corn-may-cause-diabetes/

 

New Zealand's governmental food standards board may approve a

genetically altered type of corn used for animal feed. The Monsanto

Corporation

produces the new corn called High-Lysine Corn LY038.

 

Monsanto scientists have altered the corn to contain higher levels of

the amino acid lysine than is found in other corn varieties.

 

While lysine itself isn't a health risk, if the LY038 variety is cooked

with sugars also found in the corn, compounds called AGE's are produced

which are implicated in causing Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and

several other health conditions.

 

Even though Monsanto states that LY038 is intended only for animal

feed, they made application for approval as a human food so they do not

have to keep the altered corn separate from edible corn.

 

The real problem is the government's food agency made no effort to test

what the health impact would be if the LY038 were to enter the human

food supply. Numerous ways animal feed either can accidentally or

deliberately end up eaten by humans is a serious risk.

 

There are many countries with diabetes epidemics, including New Zealand

and the United States. Risking our food supply is not worth the risk of

potentially increasing the sugar content of food in a diabetic diet or

everyday foods.

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2.Food code not grounded on best available science

Press Release: University of Canterbury

Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety

8 June 2006

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0606/S00022.htm

 

Proposed change to food code not grounded on best available science

 

The Centre for Research in Biosafety (INBI) is urging the food

standards agency to reconsider its draft recommendation to approve a

new type

of GM corn.

 

INBI has recommended that Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ)

should not approve Monsanto's genetically modified high-lysine LY038

corn until further safety studies have been conducted.

 

FSANZ is the agency responsible for protecting the safety and integrity

of food sold in Australia and New Zealand.

 

Monsanto has applied to FSANZ for LY038 to be permitted in the food

supply, but has declared that its intention is to market LY038 as animal

feed. INBI believes LY038 is the first genetically modified crop plant

substantially different in its nutritional profile to be considered for

approval as a human food. INBI recommends that safety studies be

conducted using GM corn that has been cooked and processed as it is in

human

food.

 

" The key difference between the use of corn as an animal feed and a

human food is cooking and processing, and FSANZ has made no attempt to

assess food hazards resulting from cooking or processing of LY038, " said

INBI Director and University of Canterbury Associate Professor Jack

Heinemann.

 

He said LY038 corn was substantially different to conventional corn in

that it has high concentrations of compounds that are known to produce

food hazards when heated with the sugars found in corn.

 

" We've carefully examined the risk assessment done by FSANZ and its

supporting materials, and we can't understand why FSANZ does not ask for

the obvious scientific studies that would establish the safety of this

product when it is cooked and processed, the way people - and not

chickens - eat it, " Heinemann said.

 

While the FSANZ assessment assumes that LY038 would enter the food

supply only in small amounts and inadvertently, the INBI submission

identifies a number of realistic pathways, both deliberate and

inadvertent,

through which the amounts of LY038 in the food supply could be much more

significant.

 

In its submission to FSANZ, INBI makes over 90 major recommendations,

most of which identify deficiencies in the supporting scientific studies

and in the analysis conducted by FSANZ. INBI also notes ways in which

the FSANZ standards deviate from those recommended by international food

safety bodies such as Codex Alimentarius and the World Health

Organisation.

 

" FSANZ is obligated to use the best scientific evidence available and

conduct a case-by-case assessment. From our point of view, it hasn't

consistently done either, " said Heinemann. INBI has called on FSANZ to

explain how it weighs competing costs and benefits when coming to its

decisions.

 

" FSANZ is charged with maintaining public confidence in the quality and

safety of food, " said Billie Moore, an INBI researcher. " This is

impossible without public confidence in FSANZ and its decision-making

processes, which must therefore be transparent and open to public

scrutiny and

evaluation. It cannot expect the public to have confidence in

unsubstantiated assertions and unexplained reasoning. " For the INBI

submission,

please go to:

http://www.inbi.canterbury.ac.nz/Documents/submissions/submissionDARA549.pdfENDS

 

 

 

 

 

 

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