Baking&Snack - March 2014 - 69

bills to mandate such labeling were
introduced in the House and Senate
during April 2013.
Labeling opponents - food industry and farm groups - are also
vocal about the benefits biotech
brings. They cite lower usage of
synthetic pesticides and herbicides,
savings in labor and energy from
low- and no-till cultivation, and improved yield for a better farm economy. A Feb. 2 New York Times op-ed
piece, "We need GMO wheat," raised
these agronomic issues in advocating for bioengineered wheat, which
has yet to see commercialization.
By any measure, public discussion of GMOs in the American food
supply continues to rise, and leading food industry associations are
climbing on board the bandwagon
by adopting positions favoring voluntary labeling of these materials.
What does "going non-GMO"
mean to formulators? In the absence
of regulation, all matters are discretionary. Here's a review of the issues
and concerns involved.

GMOs are what, exactly?
The 20th century saw enormous advances in plant and animal breeding
through advanced biotechnology. By
using recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA), scientists could alter
genetic coding to introduce into an
organism traits previously not found
in its genome or species. In contrast,
conventional methods, used since
ancient times, develop new plant
traits by selecting for characteristics
and genes present in one line of a
genome or species and transferring
it to another line by cross-breeding
or hybridization.
Results of the rDNA method
are variously described as "bioengineered" (biotech), "genetically
engineered" (GE) or "genetically
modified" (GM) materials. Over the
years, the term "genetically modified
organism," or GMO, has been widely favored over other wordings. The

intent is to differentiate such plants
and animals from "conventionally
bred" crops.
The first GE crops were planted
commercially in 1994, and foods
made from GE microbial and plant
sources have been in the US food
supply for more than 20 years, according to the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA). The first
food ingredient was an enzyme derived from a GE microbe for cheese
manufacturing.
In the US today, GE soybeans
account for 93% of all plantings,
and GE corn represents 88% of the
crop. Other GE food crops include
canola, sugar beets, summer squash
and zucchini. Although the US is
most associated with GM crops,
other countries with significant GE
acreage are Brazil, Argentina, India
and Canada. Altogether, these crops
grow in 30 countries on 420 million
acres, about 10% of the world's agricultural fields. Even Europe, the
center of resistance to these crops,
plants GE varieties, but only two:
corn and potatoes.
Most of the time, application of
bioengineering to crops involves
herbicide and disease resistance,
drought tolerance and yield improvement. "Most GE crops are used
as sources of food ingredients and
as animal feed," said Dennis Keefe,
PhD, director of FDA's Office of
Food Additive Safety. "A few plants
have been engineered for nutritional
traits," he noted, citing development
of soybeans with increased amounts
of omega-3 fatty acids, a polyunsaturated fatty acid associated with a
reduced risk of heart disease.
Ingredients derived from GE
plants and microorganisms are also
at issue. According to The NonGMO Project, a certifying group
headquartered at Bellingham, WA,
these can include amino acids, aspartame, ascorbic acid, sodium
ascorbate, vitamin C, citric acid,
sodium citrate, ethanol, flavorings

For more information, see Page 133

http://www.npisoy.com

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