Herbicide tolerance
Soy is an important food ingredient. It has good nutritional properties, and it has widespread use in processed foods.
Whenever any changes are made to the soy plant, for example, by genetic modification, that the effects on the nutritional value must be examined.
All GM foods offered for sale in Australia must first be evaluated to see whether they contain any new toxins or allergens, or whether the nutritional quality has changed, as a result of adding a new gene.
For example, one gene has been added to GM herbicide tolerant soy. Researchers found no difference in the nutritional composition of conventional soy and GM herbicide-tolerant soy.
Feeding studies in catfish, chickens, rats and dairy cattle have shown that their body weight and composition did not change when fed herbicide-tolerant soy.
In addition, when dairy cattle are fed herbicide- tolerant soy, the level of milk production and the composition of the milk did not change.
After a full safety assessment, FSANZ approved the soy from these herbicide-tolerant plants for use in foods for human consumption.
Nothing to sneeze at
In the mid 1990s, a form of GM soy was developed that incorporated a protein from the brazil nut to improve the nutritional quality of the soy protein. The GM soy was subjected to safety testing and was found to cause reactions in people who were allergic to the brazil nut. The research did not proceed, and the product did not go to market.