Nutritional and safety assessment of foods and feeds nutritionally improved through biotechnology--case studies by the International Food Biotechnology Committee of ILSI

During the last two decades, the public and private sectors have made substantial research progress internationally toward improving the nutritional value of a wide range of food and feed crops. Nevertheless, significant numbers of people still suffer from the effects of undernutrition. As newly developed crops with nutritionally improved traits come closer to being available to producers and consumers, scientifically sound and efficient processes are needed to assess the safety and nutritional quality of these crops. In 2004, a Task Force of international scientific experts, convened by the International Food Biotechnology Committee (IFBiC) of ILSI, published recommendations for the safety and nutritional assessment of foods and feeds nutritionally improved through modern biotechnology (J. Food Science, 2004, 69:CRH62-CRH68). The comparative safety assessment process is a basic principle in this publication and is the starting point, not the conclusion, of the analysis. Significant differences in composition are expected to be observed in the case of nutritionally enhanced crops and must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The Golden Rice 2 case study will be presented as an example of a food crop nutritionally enhanced through the application of modern biotechnology (i.e., recombinant DNA techniques) to illustrate how the 2004 recommendations provide a robust paradigm for the safety assessment of "real world" examples of improved nutrition crops.