Toxins in GM Foods

Source obtained from: http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfiles/GM%20Foods_text_pp_final.pdf

What about toxins in GM foods?
All substances — both natural and human-made — are toxic at some dose. However, substances classed as toxins are those that can be harmful to health at typical levels of exposure. A number of different toxins are found naturally in various foods, but the vast majority of these are present at concentrations well below the level that would harm the consumer.

Examples of toxic substances found in foods include:

• glycoalkaloids found in green potatoes
• fungal toxins that sometimes contaminate food
• glucosinolates in cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts and canola
• erucic acid in canola
• psoralens in celery
• cyanogenic glycosides in bitter almonds
• substances in poisonous species of fish and mushrooms.

Thus, toxic substances are naturally present in many conventional foods that are subsequently genetically modified. For example, both GM and conventional varieties of canola naturally contain erucic acid, and there is a limit on the amount of erucic acid that is allowed in foods derived from canola, such as canola oil. These limits apply whether the food is derived from conventional or GM
canola.
Unless any toxins present in a conventional food are specifically removed, they will remain in the GM version of the food. FSANZ compares the levels of naturally occurring toxins in the conventional food with those in the GM food. If a safety assessment found that levels of naturally occurring toxins were
higher in a GM food, FSANZ would need to assess how much of the food is normally eaten (that is, the dietary intake), to ensure that the levels of toxins consumed would not be harmful to health.