Places like China, South Africa and the Pacific rim countries, particularly, will adopt the technology eventually, so we could be faced with the prospect of importing fruit into this country in 10 or 20 years' time. All major food producers have taken abrupt steps to remove those GM foods that exist at the moment from their food products. There's no evidence that either they or the public are looking positively at GM foods. Tooth fairies Professor James told the Festival of Science that scientists are also working on producing health care products in fruit. Scientists at Guy's Hospital in London have identified a protein that prevents tooth-rotting bacteria from sticking to teeth.
Trials are underway to see if the protein, when painted on teeth, can protect against decay.
The ultimate goal of the work is to introduce the gene that makes this protein into fruit. Dr Charles Kelly from the immunology department at Guy's Hospital said they had already synthesised a protein that appears to stop tooth decay.