Fears and Facts An Interview with FDA's Jim Maryanski Genetic engineering of fruits and vegetables and FDA's policy concerning these foods have been the subject of many consumer questions recently. To help answer the questions, FDA Consumer writer Mary Alice Sudduth talked to James Maryanski, biotechnology coordinator in FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
All plant breeding involves genetic manipulation of plants.
It involves direct modification of DNA, a living thing's genetic material. This new technique is more precise, making it possible to direct and predict changes without introducing extraneous, undesirable traits. The new technique also will allow scientists to introduce genes from essentially any organism into a plant. By looking at bacteria and animals, scientists can find other traits that may expand the number of potentially useful traits. These may include size, solids content, or resistance to certain viruses or fungi.