Food Safety Focus (76th Issue, November 2012) – Food Incident Highlight

Genetically Modified Corn Tied to Cancer?

Recently, an overseas study reported that rats fed on a genetically modified (GM) corn NK603 suffered tumours and multiple organ damage.

NK603 is a GM corn engineered to confer tolerance to a particular herbicide. It has undergone safety assessment in a number of countries such as Canada, Australia, Japan, the United States, the European Union and mainland China, and has been approved for food use since 2000. Recent evaluation conducted by the European Food Safety Authority has concluded that the concerned study on toxicity of NK603 is of insufficient scientific quality to be considered as valid for risk assessment.

Traders should ensure their GM food products have undergone proper safety assessment and are fit for human consumption. GM food should also be labelled as such in accordance with the "Guideline on Voluntary Labelling of Genetically Modified (GM) Food".