CSE's Study on GM food is flawed and needlessly alarmist, states expert

The Centre for Science and Environment is passing off its detection of material from genetically-engineered plants in 21 of 65 food samples obtained from Punjab, Gujarat and the Delhi region as a surprising discovery. Pawan Agarwal, the CEO of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India told me there is a “regulatory vacuum” on food containing material from GE plants. But based on available scientific evidence, the view of the authority is that there is no “verifiable health impact of GM food vis-à-vis conventional food on humans.” FSSAI, which was formed by a law enacted in 2006 is supposed to regulate food derived from bioengineered plants. But in 2007, after FSSAI was formed, “GM processed food, ingredients, additives and processing aids,” were exempted from that provision, so long as the end product was not a living modified organism. This is not possible because different material – Bt cotton leaf, food containing material obtained from GE plants like corn, and oil derived from transgenic crops – will carry different amounts of transgenic DNA.