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GM microbes in food



Codex alimenatarius is the group of bureaucrats who work for FAO and set
standards for foods that are usually implemented by the world trade
organization. Codex standards tend to be forced on the world. The
deliberation on GM organisms includes GM microbes in foods. The
standards being considered  by codex are clearly a means to spread GM
microbes with little or no testing based on "substantial equivalence" to
protect the food manufacturers from liability from their untested
products. Portions of the codex positions that no animal testing is
needed and substantial equivalence dogma is the rule are given below.
The document shows the naked bias and willingness to endanger the public
of the codex bureaucrats. In the codex system step 6 is the final step
before implementation.
   The 3rd Session of the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on

Foods Derived from Biotechnology discussed the Proposed Draft Guideline

for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Produced Using

Recombinant-DNA Microorganisms and agreed to advance it to the next

session of the Codex Executive Committee for its adoption at Step 5

since the Task Force noted that the general approach and outline of the

Proposed Draft while it noted there were several proposals to amend the

paragraphs in the text (para 88, ALINORM 03/34).

The 50th Session of the Codex Executive Committee adopted  it at Step 5

and advanced to Step 6 Draft Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety

Assessment of Foods Produced Using Recombinant-DNA Microorganisms.
12.    Animal studies cannot readily be applied to testing the risks

associated with whole foods, which are complex mixtures of compounds,

and often characterized by a wide variation in composition and

nutritional value. Due to their bulk and effect on satiety, they can

usually only be fed to animals at low multiples of the amounts that

might be present in the human diet. In addition, a key factor to

consider in conducting animal studies on foods is the nutritional value

and balance of the diets used, in order to avoid the induction of

adverse effects that are not related directly to the material itself.

Detecting any potential adverse effects and relating these conclusively

to an individual characteristic of the food can therefore be extremely

difficult. Another consideration in deciding the need for animal

studies is whether it is appropriate to subject experimental animals to

such a study if it is unlikely to give rise to meaningful information.
13.    Animal studies typically employed in toxicological evaluations

also cannot be readily applied to testing potential risks associated

with ingestion of microorganisms used for food production.

Microorganisms are living entities, containing complex structures

composed of many biochemicals, and therefore are not comparable to pure

compounds. In some processed foods, they can survive processing and

ingestion and can compete and, in some cases, be retained in the

intestinal environment for significant periods of time. Appropriate

animal studies should be used to evaluate the safety of recombinant-DNA

microorganisms where the donor, or the gene or gene product do not have

a history of safe use in food. Further, appropriately designed studies

in animals may be used to assess the nutritional value of the food or

the bioavailability of the newly expressed substance in the food.
14.    Due to the difficulties of applying traditional toxicological

testing and risk assessment procedures to whole foods produced using

microorganisms, an alternative approach is required for the safety

assessment of foods produced using microorganisms, including

recombinant-DNA microorganisms. This has been addressed by the

development of a multidisciplinary approach for assessing safety, that

takes into account the intended effect, the nature of the modification,

and detectable unintended changes that may occur in the microorganism

or in its action on the food, using the concept of substantial

equivalence . While the focus of a safety assessment will be on the

recombinant-DNA microorganism, additional information on its

interaction with the food matrix should be taken into consideration

when applying the concept of substantial equivalence, which is a key

step in the safety assessment process. However, the concept of

substantial equivalence is not a safety assessment in itself; rather it

represents the starting point that is used to structure the safety

assessment of [both] a recombinant-DNA microorganism relative to its

conventional counterpart [as well as the food produced with the aid of

the RDM relative to its conventional counterpart]. This concept is used

to identify similarities and differences between a recombinant-DNA

microorganism used in food processing and its conventional counterpart.

Generally, the comparison should be between the recombinant-DNA

microorganism and its recipient strain used in its development.  [An

evaluation of the differences between the recombinant-DNA microorganism

and its conventional counterpart could be a starting point to address

safety concerns.] However, there will be instances when the food or

specific gene product(s) encoded by the modified DNA and produced by

the recombinant DNA microorganism should be compared with the

appropriate conventional counterpart. The safety assessment carried out

in this way does not imply absolute safety of the new product; rather,

it focuses on assessing the safety of any identified differences so

that the safety of the recombinant-DNA microorganism can be considered

relative to its conventional counterpart.
   In closing , codex functions very much like the bureaucrats in the
old movie soylent green.A New York ploice detective (Charlton Heston) in
an AD2022 marked by overpopulation investigates what appears to be a
routine murder and in the end discovers that "soylent green", the main
food for the world's population, is actually made from dead human bodies.

.