The foreign genes instruct the recipient host to manufacture novel proteins that could prove to be allergens. A recent report of the transfer of an allergenic protein from Brazil nuts to soya beans has highlighted the potential risks and the need for appropriate regulatory policies that include premarket monitoring and explicit labelling of transgenic foods. In the laboratory, expression of a marker gene that endows the recipient with resistance to a particular antibiotic is the criterion most commonly used to confirm successful transfer of the donor gene. There is a small risk that food that contains such markers might donate antibiotic resistance to pathogens in the gut of the consumer. They fear both commercial and ecological consequences.
Scientific opinion is divided.
There was no significant difference in invasiveness among the three varieties. The jury is out. The problem is illustrated by reference to soya, a component of a great number of processed food products. The sad truth is that scientists and the regulatory processes no longer enjoy the unequivocal trust of a lay population that retains a vivid folk memory of false assurances of no problem by the chemical, nuclear, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries at comparable junctures in their respective histories.