The insertion of DNA of animal origin into plant cells raises the possibility that novel molecules produced by these plants might enter the food chain. While this possiblity is probably slight it ought to be considered. For example if this debate had occurred 20 years ago no-one would have considered that prions existed and that aberrant versions would prove fatal. It is therefore possible that other such molecules may exist of which we have no knowledge.

The only way of testing this possibility is to conduct extended trials of these GM produced foods on animal models. These would, of course, need to be conducted in an appropriate manner, unlike some of the experiments so far given wide publicity.

Professor JF Lamb PhD FRCPE FRSE
Emeritus Professor of Physiology, University of St Andrews
RSE representative on the scientific and governing board of the Rowett
Research Institute, Aberdeen.