FDA Set to OK Genetically Altered Fish as Food

Best get ready to sharpen your radar and know how to get answers about the seafood you buy -

FDA Set to OK Genetically Altered Fish as Food

By Martha Lynn Craver
October 27, 2010

A fast growing genetically engineered salmon is a good bet for approval by the Food and Drug Administration. It would be the first genetically modified animal sold as food. Dubbed “Frankenfish” by opponents, the new version of Atlantic salmon was developed by AquaBounty Technologies. It grows almost twice as fast as farm-raised salmon, thanks to one growth hormone gene from a chinook salmon and another from an eel, the ocean pout. The application has been pending before the agency for well over 10 years.

A congressional effort to ban the fish will fail, although it’s a fair bet that lawmakers will give the FDA the authority to require a label identifying the produce as genetically modified. “Approval of genetically modified salmon, the first such hybrid to be considered for human consumption, is unprecedented, risky and a threat to the survival of wild species,” says Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, whose state has a thriving salmon industry.

Also likely to be on the table: Broadening the mission of regulators to ensure they consider environmental risks before granting future approvals -- not just whether the food is safe and whether animals are harmed by the genetic manipulation.

A push to add greater public input to the approval process is also a good bet. The current procedure is similar to that for new drugs, with limited public participation. “The current process is confidential. It’s not transparent or participatory,” says Gregory Jaffe of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Next up: The Enviropig -- a porker genetically altered to make the manure it produces less polluting, with phosphorus levels 30% to 65% lower than normal. It’s being developed by scientists at the University of Guelph in Canada. Also in the works from Hematech Inc. are cattle that are not susceptible to mad cow disease. The animals lack a protein that mutates, so they don’t get the disease and can’t pass it on.
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What You Are Not Hearing About GMO Franken-Fish

Sep 27, 2010

You've probably heard that the FDA is considering whether to approve the first-ever genetically-engineered fish [1]. Developed by a Massachusetts-based company called AquaBounty Technologies [2], this new supersalmon is basically an ...

Natural Health News: GMO Salmon Coming to a Table Near You

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What You Are Not Hearing About GMO Franken-Fish

Are Genetically Engineered Foods (Including Salmon) More Allergenic?

By Kiera Butler | Mon Sep. 27, 2010 

ScienceDaily (2010-09-25) -- An expert comments on potential FDA approval of the first genetically engineered animal for use as food.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100925105209.htm

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You've probably heard that the FDA is considering whether to approve the first-ever genetically-engineered fish [1]. Developed by a Massachusetts-based company called AquaBounty Technologies [2], this new supersalmon is basically an Atlantic salmon with genes from Chinook salmon and a fish called the ocean pout [3]. In theory, this could be a good thing: The new genes allow the fish, called AquAdvantage, to grow twice as fast [4] as regular salmon, meaning more salmon for everyone, and less stress on wild stocks.
But a number of consumer, health, and environmental groups say that neither AquaBounty Technologies nor the FDA has enough evidence to ensure the public that the fish—which wouldn't have to be labeled as genetically engineered (GE) on supermarket shelves—is safe for people or the planet. Consumers Union senior scientist Michael Hansen called the company's food safety tests "woefully incomplete [5]," and the group pointed out that the FDA approval panel is mostly comprised of GE cheerleaders [6], with no fish ecologists or allergists. Why's an allergist important? Because the company's own tests suggest that the new salmon could be much more allergenic than regular salmon.
In order to understand the allergy tests, a bit of backstory on how AquAdvantage salmon are made [7] is necessary. First, genetic engineers create a "diploid" fish, meaning like people, it has two sets of chromosomes. Then, to make the final market product, they add genetic material from other fish and breed a new salmon with three sets of chromosomes—a "triploid" female that can't reproduce. AquaBounty researchers compared the allergenicity—or potential to cause an allergic reaction—of a control group of salmon to both the genetically engineered diploids and triploids. They found (PDF [8], see page 102) that the diploid salmon were 40 percent more allergenic than the control, while the triploid group was 19 percent more allergenic.
AquaBounty says that the triploids' allergenicity level wasn't statistically significant, and although the diploids' level is significant, it doesn't matter because only triploids will be sold. But Hansen of the Consumers Union finds a few problems with this argument. For starters, the test wasn't double blind, meaning the researchers knew which fish were part of which test group. Second, the sample size of triploid fish was tiny—only six fish in all. Third, although AquaBounty is going to try to turn all its market-bound fish into triploid sterile females, the process isn't perfect, and some 5 percent could end up as the more allergenic diploid. Especially scary when you consider that unlike the triploids, the diploids aren't sterile. So if they escaped, they could breed with wild salmon.
The FDA simply doesn't have enough information to determine whether AquaBounty's salmon are likely to cause more allergic reactions than their non-GE counterparts. But there is good reason to be concerned about the potential allergenicity of all GE foods, says Margaret Mellon, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientsts. "You have this technology that allows you to essentially move proteins around from food to food," she says. "You can move a highly allergenic protein into a new food, and no one will know to avoid the new food."
Indeed, a 1996 study [9] published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that people who were allergic to Brazil nuts were also allergic to soy beans that had been implanted with a Brazil nut protein. There is also some evidence that even proteins don't usually cause allergies can become allergenic when they are moved to a new food. A 2005 Australian study [10] found that mice who were fed peas containing a typically non-allergenic protein from kidney beans experienced allergic reactions.
Another worry is that potentially allergenic GE crops might "escape" into foods. In the late '90s, the pharmaceutical giant Aventis introduced StarLink, a genetically engineered variety of corn. StarLink was approved for sale in the US, but only for non-food uses, since it contained a potentially allergenic protein. But then, traces of it started turning up in food (most famously, Taco Bell taco shells [11]), and 28 people claimed they had suffered allergic reactions to foods containing StarLink. Although the CDC later found no medical evidence [12] that any of those people had an allergy to the corn, an EPA advisory panel acknowledged that the CDC's tests did "not eliminate StarLink...protein as a potential cause of allergic symptoms."
The bottom line: It's not that genetically engineered foods are inherently more allergenic than traditional foods, but transfering genes does make it more likely that allergens might pop up in unexpected places. "There can be a lot of unintended side effects when you do genetic modification, which means you have to test very carefully," says Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the watchdog group Food and Water Watch [13]. "In the case of salmon, one test on six fish just seems very insufficient for something that will open the floodgates to other GE meat and fish."

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Source URL: http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/09/genetically-engineered-salmon-allergies

Links:
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/business/energy-environment/21salmon.html
[2] http://www.aquabounty.com/
[3] http://www.stripersonline.com/ubb547/image_uploads6/oceanpout2.jpg
[4] http://www.aquabounty.com/products/aquadvantage-295.aspx
[5] http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_food_safety/016893.html
[6] http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-20-why-is-the-fda-about-to-rubber-stamp-ge-salmon/
[7] http://www.alternet.org/food/148156/the_creepy_science_behind_genetically_engineered_%22frankenfish%22_about_to_enter_our_food_supply_unlabeled/
[8] http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/VeterinaryMedicineAdvisoryCommittee/UCM224762.pdf
[9] http://www.contentnejmorg.zuom.info/cgi/content/full/334/11/688
[10] http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8347
[11] http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/23/business/kraft-recalls-taco-shells-with-bioengineered-corn.html
[12] http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/14/business/us-finds-no-allergies-to-altered-corn.html
[13] http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/fish/seafood/stop-frankenfish/

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Posted in: AquaBounty,food allergy,GMO salmon,salmom

GMO Salmon Coming to a Table Near You

9/23 - Genetically altered salmon? It doesn't stop there

UPDATE: 19 September -
http://www.usatoday.com/video/index.htm?bctid=613913464001#/News/Fish+or+frankenfish%3F+FDA+weighs+altered+salmon/42804638001/40264770001/613913464001


New Scientist: Transgenic fish swimming towards a plate near you

FDA advisors to vote (20 Sept)on genetically engineered salmon

It grows faster, eats less and has sparked intense debate about modifying animals for our food supply.

By Andrew Zajac, Tribune Washington Bureau - September 18, 2010

In a step that may move genetically engineered meat and fish closer to the American dinner table, an FDA advisory committee will vote Monday on whether to approve preliminary findings that a modified salmon is as safe as an ordinary salmon.


The vote is not binding on the FDA, but approval would lend powerful support for a final decision by the agency charged with protecting the nation's food and drug supplies. The fish, a North Atlantic salmon developed by AquaBounty Technologies Inc. would be the country's first genetically engineered food animal.


It grows to market size in half the time of other salmon and consumes 25 percent less feed in the process, according to the company, which is based in Waltham, Mass.

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Farmed Salmon Information

The Food and Drug Administration is seriously considering whether to approve the first genetically engineered animal that people would eat — salmon that can grow at twice the normal rate.
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