The New York Times recently published an article that revealed the FDA approval of genetically modified produce. Specifically, potatoes and apples are the two crops approved. Arctic apples were modified to resist turning brown when sliced or bruised, cutting the cost of apples that cannot be sold for those reasons. The Innate potatoes also resist bruising, but more importantly they were modified to limit the amount of acrylamide produced when the potatoes are fried. It has been suspected that acrylamide, the by product of potato frying, may be a carcinogen.
The FDA stated that the apples and potatoes "are not materially different in safety and nutrition from other apples." However, they suggest labeling that the foods are bruise resistant or may reduce suspected carcinogens to indicate to consumers that these foods have been modified.
After reading these two articles I am left with a few questions. Firstly, I am wondering why I didn't know that fried potatoes potentially cause cancer? and if that is true, why are fried potatoes so common? It also seems that this GMO labeling process seems to be a little misleading, and perhaps it is because people are scared of the label, just like people were scared of nuclear medicine and diagnostic tools. I think there should be an initiative to inform consumers of what GMO really means.
Interesting. I wonder if there are more details about how the potatoes and apples are modified to resist bruising. I also wonder if how they modify the potatoes and apples affects their taste or texture at all.
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