FRANKENFISH? GMO SALMON TESTED SHOW HIGH ALLERGY POTENCY

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Consumer group starts petition to urge more review

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: GMO salmon (back) is larger than non-GMO salmon of same age

May 2, 2015 (Washington D.C.)  -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering approving a genetically modified salmon – not as a food, but as an “animal drug,” according to Sarah Alexander at Food and Water Watch.  If approved, it would be the first GMO animal allowed into our food chain. But tests have found high levels of both hormone and potential allergens.  Only six fish were tested for allergies – but those fish had an allergenic potency was 20 to 50 percent higher in the GMO salmon than non-GMO salmon.

Food and Water Watch has launched a petition to require that the FDA review AquaBounty’s GMO salmon as food—which means it would have to undergo comprehensive toxicological studies to assure it is safe to consume.

This isn’t the first outcry over GMO salmon.  A petition asking the FDA to reject the GMO fish in 2012 drew 250,000 signatures, though the FDA ignored it.

Unfortunately, the FDA isn't doing an independent, scientific assessment of the risks that GMO salmon pose to your health, the environment and animal welfare,” Alexander concludes in a letter sent to consumers. “The FDA can’t make science-based risk assessments based on six fish. And they shouldn't declare that GMO salmon is safe to eat based on a regulatory review process that solely treats a food product like a drug.”



 


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