September 4, 2010 in Nation/World

Custom salmon said safe

Genetically modified fish edges closer to approval
Kim Geiger Tribune Washington bureau
 
Fear dismissed

The potential for cross-breeding with wild salmon is an issue that has been of great concern to some environmental and food safety advocates, but it was deemed “unlikely” in the FDA analysis.

WASHINGTON – The effort to win federal approval of genetically engineered salmon received a major boost Friday when the Food and Drug Administration released an analysis that deemed the fish safe to eat and unlikely to harm the environment.

AquaBounty Technologies Inc., of Waltham, Mass., has invested more than 14 years and nearly $60 million developing and seeking approval of its AquAdvantage salmon. The company says its fish look and taste like nonengineered North Atlantic salmon, consume up to 25 percent less food and reach market weight in half the time.

If approved, the fish would be the nation’s first commercially produced animal that is genetically engineered for food.

The analysis found the fish to be “as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon.”

The FDA’s Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee will hold public meetings Sept. 19-20 to review the analysis.

The company has said that it intends to sell the genetically altered eggs – which would be engineered to produce sterile female fish – to producers who would be required to raise them inland to prevent the salmon from escaping into the wild.

At the egg production and out-growth facilities, the risk that fish might escape is “extremely small due to the presence of multiple, independent forms of physical (mechanical) containment at both facilities,” the FDA analysis said.

But Wenonah Hauter, executive director at Food and Water Watch, a consumer advocacy organization that focuses on food and water policy, disputed that conclusion.

“The FDA also says that (AquaBounty’s) promises are potentially misleading because up to 5 percent of eggs sold for growout could be fertile,” Hauter said.

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Two comments on this story so far. Add yours!

  • Ninch on September 04 at 9:07 a.m.

    The fact that these salmon are “modified” to consume 25% less food as well as reach market weight in half the time indicates to me that no way can they look and taste like “nonengineered” North Atlantic salmon. In other words, this looks like a marketing scam that is equivalent to the demise of the Washington State Red Delicious apple. Looked so big and pretty, but lost all its flavor.

    Note to FDA, raising genetically-modified salmon INLAND is not even close to being a fail-safe precaution. Inland streams run into rivers that run into oceans. Apparently, the so-called “scientists” know NOTHING about the life-cycle of salmon. And hatcheries (i.e. egg production and out-growth facilities) lose fish from their physical barriers all the time. Also fish eating birds help propagate the fish into other bodies of water.

    FDA cannot keep us safe from everyday food issues, yet they are emboldened to let genetic manipulation enter the natural world of the environment, including experimentation on humans.

  • misjustice on September 04 at 12:03 p.m.

    I hope that the genetically-modified fish are labeled as such. As it is now, I will NOT purchase/eat fish that is farm raised but I am only able to do so because the meat is labeled.

    I agree with ninch that the FDA is ineffective in regulating simple things such as egg production, I doubt their efficiency at overseeing a new technology such as genetically-modified food stuffs.

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