On the positive side, rice has been seasoned with daffodil and bacteria genes to boost vitamin A content, in the hope that a million children a year can be saved from dying from deficiencies. The World Health Organization says 230 million children are at risk of vitamin A deficiencies in areas where rice is widely consumed. In Southeast Asia alone, a million children go blind for want of the vitamin. Studies should be done on the actual safety of these products. People shouldn't blacken them all in a general way.
Scientists say it ends with consumer awareness.
That is why many are demanding that exotic combinations be labeled. Yet the Chinese believe that food and medicine are derived from the same sources. The key is to use both wisely. We have already accepted the lactobacillus in yogurt as health enhancing. To add them to processed foods makes as much sense as adding aspirin to soup.