Allergic reactions cause discomforts and in some cases can cause life-threatening anaphylactic shock. Since known food allergens are proteins, foods with new proteins added via genetic engineering could sometimes become newly allergenic. This concern is real. One company has already dropped plans to commercialize soybeans with a Brazil nut gene after testing revealed the soybeans were likely to cause allergic reactions in Brazil nut allergic individuals. Unfortunately, there is currently no predictive methodology for testing the allergenicity of most proteins introduced to foods via genetic engineering.
Testing is only possible for proteins from commonly allergenic foods, such as nuts.
However, for most proteins, including those from foods that are not commonly allergenic and those from non-food sources such as bacteria, no such testing is possible. In other words, most proteins added to foods via genetic engineering cannot be tested for allergenicity. Instead, industry scientists simply screen the biochemical characteristics of proteins to see if they are consistent with the characteristics associated with allergens. It remains to be seen how effective such screening will be in protecting public health. Extremely troubling, FDA regulators have failed to assume a leadership role in addressing the potentially serious food safety risks from allergens added to foods via genetic engineering.