More seriously, in 1989 there was an outbreak of a new disease in the US, contracted by over 5,000 people and traced back to a batch of L-tryptophan food supplement produced with GM bacteria. More may have died, but the American Centre for Disease Control stopped counting in 1991. The US government declared that it was not GM that was at fault but a failure in the purification process. Scientists at Showa Denko blame the GM process for producing traces of a potent new toxin. This new toxin had never been found in non-GM versions of the product.
Substantial equivalence is a legal concept invented by the biotech industry.
Regulators have blindly accepted the substantial equivalence doctrine without backing up their belief with independent scientific research. The doctrine of substantial equivalence means that there is nothing in the regulations to prevent another tragedy like the L-tryptophan case from happening again with new GM foods. Naturally, when it comes to patenting, the rules change. It transforms into a unique product which remains the sole property of the patent holder, and woe betide anyone who infringes the patent. A person may prove unexpectedly allergic to a food he has previously eaten safely.