Safety aspects of novel foods

Cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops with benefits to farmers (pest resistance, herbicide tolerance) has rapidly gained adoption since 1996. Future GM crops are envisioned that will also provide health benefits to their consumers. To assess the food safety of GM crops, internationally recognised strategies have been developed. These strategies focus at the characteristics of the genetic modification process, the properties of newly expressed compounds and at possible alterations in composition of the new crop. Substantial equivalence has been proven to be an adequate guidance principle in order to identify relevant safety issues of GM crops. New profiling methods are described for the detection of unintended effects, which may occur in GM foods as a result of the genetic modification. These profiling techniques are of particular relevance for those food crops in which profound changes in metabolic pathways may have taken place as a result of the genetic modification process. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.