WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1022/97 by Hiltrud BREYER to the Council. Health hazards arising from genetically engineered foods
Date: 1997-03-24
Institutions: BREYER, European Parliament
Subjects: antibiotic, biotechnology, food inspection, foodstuffs legislation, genetic engineering, genetically modified organism, human nutrition, marketing, public health, scientific research













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91997E1022

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1022/97 by Hiltrud BREYER to the Council. Health hazards arising from genetically engineered foods  


Official Journal C 391 , 23/12/1997 P. 0034 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-1022/97 by Hiltrud Breyer (V) to the Council (24 March 1997)Subject: Health hazards arising from genetically engineered foodsA study of the absorption of food-derived DNA in the gastro-intestinal tract of mammals has been published by W.Doerfler and R.Schubbert (W.Doerfler/R.Schubbert: Medicinal-genetic implications. Absorption of foreign DNA via the gastro-intestinal tract. In Deutsches Ärzteblatt - Ärztliche Mitteilungen No 25/26 Cologne 1994). Doerfler and Schubbert conclude, in contrast to prevailing scientific opinion, that food-derived DNA in the gastro-intestinal tract is not completely destroyed by the digestion process but that DNA fragments of up to aquarter of the size of the original DNA - i.e. functioning genetic sequences - reach the gastro-intestinal tract. This DNA can be absorbed and recombined by microorganisms and pathogens. This exogenous DNA was also found in blood cells and could also be absorbed by receptors of muscular cells.1. What is the Council's assessment of the risk that proteins of body cells and microorganisms coded on the exogenous DNA may be translated in the human body?2. Does the Council agree that, as a result, antiobiotic resistances, which in many transgenic plants are present as marker genes, must be reevaluated?3. What is the Council's reaction to the fact that antibiotic resistances could therefore enter pathogens in the human body?4. Should the market authorization for genetically modified maize produced by Novartis (previously Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz), which contains a resistance against amplicilin, not be reviewed and possibly withdrawn as a result of these new scientific findings?5. Does the Council agree that, at the very least, antibiotic resistance genes should be avoided in transgenic plants?6. Is the Council prepared to take account of these new scientific findings when deciding whether to grant future market authorizations for genetically modified and produced foods?7. Does the Council agree that the transfer of genetic material across species boundaries as a result of new scientific findings constitutes, by its very nature, a general hazard, in view of the constant risk of a synthesis of allergenic substances following recombination?Answer (14 July 1997)The Council is not aware of the study referred to by the Honourable Member and as a result can neither comment on it nor draw conclusions from it.It would also remind the Honourable Member that, before genetically modified foodstuffs are placed on the market, a number of scientific checks have to be made at both the national and Community stages in the assessment of applications for their placing on the market.Furthermore, Article 16 of Directive 90/220/EEC makes it possible inter alia for consent already given to the placing of a product on the market to be reviewed where a Member State has objective reasons to consider that a duly authorized product presents a risk to human health or the environment.