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[SANET-MG] a wierd attack on organic foods by biotech pr science



The article below is the most current  of a series of loony attacks on
organic foods by GM public relations "scientists" Certainly methyl
eugenol  does cause cancer in rats and mice and it is found in basil.
Even though "organic" basil was not identified in the article the  GM
supporter claims  that GM corn is safer than pesto which contains basil,
and organic foods have "hidden" toxins that are "not present"  in gm
foods (which have  nice synthetic genes). However no "organic " food was
identified in the article and the consensus of  food scientists is that
methyl eugenol is not a tangible threat  at the levels found in spiced
food. I have included a source article giving the consensus view of
legitimate  food scientists at the bottom of this letter..It seems to me
the newspaper writer should have balanced the article with a comment
from a food additive expert from  FAO/WHO.


Storm in a pesto jar: Italian producers at odds with scientists over
cancer scare
By Peter Popham in Rome
05 November 2004 the idependent

A bitter row has broken out in Italy over the alleged toxicity of one of
the nation's favourite foods: pesto. The Genovese sauce prepared for
centuries in Ligurian kitchens by grinding together fresh young basil
leaves, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil contains a
carcinogenic ingredient, a leading Italian scientist warns. And the
tastier the pesto, the greater the danger.
The problem ingredient is a carcinogenic agent called methyl-eugenol,
which is found to be present in the leaves of young basil plants, up to
10 centimetres in height, from the best plantations in Liguria - the
optimum basil for use in pesto doc (for "denomonazione origine
controllata").

According to Professor Francesco Sala of the Umberto Veronesi
Foundation, in a plate of spaghetti with pesto doc "there is a
concentration of methyl-eugenol 600 times higher than the accepted
safety limit. Which is not to say that it produces tumours, but that it
increases the probability of having them". Using adult basil, Professor
Sala goes on, the risk is eliminated. Why? "The methyl-eugenol protects
the young plant from insects and bacteria. Then, as it grows, the
molecule loses its methyl and becomes harmless." And also, the
aficionados claim, far less appetising.

But with their full frontal assault on one of Italy's proudest food
inventions, Professor Sala and his colleagues may have bitten off more
than they can chew. The guardians of the pesto tradition were quick to
condemn the new attack.

"We're on our own," ruminated Sergio and Riccardo Bertola, chefs of
Genoa's Gran Gotto restaurant. "The big firms want to sell their 'pesto
sauce' made with Kenyan basil and preservatives instead of sea salt.
They dragged out this stuff [about pesto being carcinogenic] years ago,
then they said it wasn't true ... Is it really necessary to beat up on
pesto? Okay, we're not professors but we've been making pesto like this
for centuries."

The region of Liguria recently won a battle over the definition of
pesto, forcing Nestlé to withdraw a pesto sauce "à la Genovese" made
with basil grown from German and Swiss seeds. At the same time Liguria
and 13 other Italian regions two weeks ago declared themselves "GM-free
zones".

This week's claims about pesto came as part of a last-minute offensive
by pro-GM scientists to prevent a government ban on the growing of GM
crops. The legislation, due last month, has been delayed by wrangles
within the ruling centre-right coalition, but is expected to be
presented to parliament next week.

The argument of the scientists is that while GM foods can be eaten with
absolute confidence, given the amount of research that has been done on
them, the "natural", "organic" foods vaunted by Italy's army of foodies
may contain hidden hazards.

The attack on basil is not in fact new: it was in 1999 that researchers
discovered by chance that the best pesto may also be the most hazardous.

The discovery was made at Genoa's Centre for Biotechnology, Professor
Sala said. "The objective [of the research] was to explain why pesto doc
is better than other types. The substance that was isolated, in fact,
makes the difference in flavour." The original publication of the claim
that Italy's best pesto might be bad for you sparked a furious
controversy, after which, Professor Sala maintains, "everyone was told
to shut up".

The reiteration of the charges this week came as the Umberto Veronesi
Foundation published a pro-GM manifesto entitled Food Safety and GM
Organisms, edited by 19 Italian scientific organisations claiming to
represent 10,000 researchers. The manifesto aims to combat what
Professor Veronesi, a former Italian health minister, calls "the absurd
demonisation" of GM foods.

Hostility to GM foods, he said, "was initially considered an
understandable caution in the face of something of little importance,
but in the light of studies on populations that for years have been
living on GM foods, the US above all, it has become an opposition that
must be eliminated because it is dangerous for our country."

He went on: "I would like to eat GM maize all the time, I would feel
safer doing so. In the USA I eat it with pleasure, while in Italy I
don't have the freedom to choose what is much safer than the so-called
organic variety."

Food Chem Toxicol. 2002,40:851-70
Safety assessment of allylalkoxybenzene derivatives used as flavouring
substances - methyl eugenol and estragole.
"In particular, rodent studies show that these events are minimal
probably in the dose range of 1-10 mg/kg body weight, which is
approximately 100-1000 times the anticipated human exposure to these
substances. For these reasons it is concluded that present exposure to
methyl eugenol and estragole resulting from consumption of food, mainly
spices and added as such, does not pose a significant cancer risk."

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