After 18 years of jumping over regulatory hurdles, sputtering in political gridlockFederal approval of genetically modified animals for human consumption is just one step away.
Despite the fact that consumers are cautious about genetically modified food and the White House reportedly made unprecedented interference, independent biologists and geneticists as well environmentalists — including VMAC, the Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee (VMAC), who was appointed by Food and Drug Administration for review of the application — found that the enhanced salmon was completely safe.
Two key DNA elements from the Chinook salmon, and an ocean pout fish are combined in the AquAdvantage salmon. The altered salmon can grow to market size in half the time.
AquaBounty Technology, a Massachusetts-based company, is considered to be the most knowledgeable about biotechnology and food applications. However, some experts believe that the regulatory delay has made AquaBounty Technologies the least effective.
“We have to take advantage of every technology,”Dr. Mark Walton, a geneticist, founded Feed the Real World in response to misrepresentations regarding food production. “The travesty is that the process has been subverted by commercial and political interests.”
AquaBounty submitted its original application to the FDA 18-years ago. The FDA and its advisory group of experts held a final hearing to review the data in 2010.
Alison Van Eenennaam (VMAC animal biotechnology expert), says the fish was subject to the “an extensive federal regulatory review,”This ensures safety and minimal risk to the environment.
“The FDA and VMAC agreed the data presented showed no difference between this fish and a conventional Atlantic salmon with regard to food safety,” said Van Eenennaam. “And the environmental concerns have been mitigated through the proposed conditions of use in land-based facilities with multiple redundant containment approaches to prevent release.”
AquAdvantage salmon are sustainably farmed using land-based storage tanks and multiple containment measures. The FDA has declared “no significant impact”The application remained in limbo after the environmental assessment. If there is no political interference, the FDA will examine public feedback on the assessment that was released last year.
“There’s nothing in this fish that gives us any indication there’s a problem to the food supply,”Alan McHughen, a molecular geneticist who is also a food safety expert, said that.
