FSANZ considering food from GM cotton

  • July 8, 2010
  • Nicole Eckersley

FSANZ has called for public comment on a submission by Bayer CropScience to approve foods derived from genetically modified cotton, mostly in the form of oil and linters.

The cotton line, GHB119, is protected against feeding damage by caterpillars by a modified gene from Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bacterium, and is also tolerant to herbicide. Both the new genes have been previously assessed by FSANZ as safe, in other GM products.

Under FSANZ regulations, any final food containing the genetically modified DNA would need to be labelled as such.

The cotton itself would be grown in major cotton-producing countries, including Australia.


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Reader Comments

Australian Food News reserves the right to edit or not publish comments of a potentially offensive or defamatory nature. Comments will not be published if name and email address has not been provided (name and email will be withheld if requested).

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3 Responses to “FSANZ considering food from GM cotton”

  1. Patricia on July 8th, 2010 7:27 pm

    Makes me wonder what kind of food they have in mind although I guess they just mean oil for deepfrying. If they want to include it in ‘vegetable oil’ the labelling had better mention it. Being duped into chowing down on the by-products of GM cotton is just another reason to I want to secede from ‘society’.

  2. Madeleine Love on July 9th, 2010 9:53 pm

    Despite the most learned submissions expressing concerns, FSANZ has approved every GM application that has come to it. If you object to the approval of this GM crop, drop them a quick note to submissions@foodstandards.gov.au but use your time more profitably by writing a letter to the Health Minister (nicola.roxon.mp@aph.gov.au) or the Health Minister’s Parliamentary Secretary (mark.butler.mp@aph.gov.au – Minister for FSANZ), to your local federal member, to newspapers, and say that you have no confidence in the FSANZ GM assessments.

  3. Ruth Rendely on July 10th, 2010 12:14 pm

    It is hard to keep up with all the insidious ways the government is trying to poison our food supply. This is one of those attempts. Whenever labeling of such `food` is not allowed, alarm bells ring in my head that we are becoming guinea pigs for some questionable food that nobody, especially not multinational corporations, want to take responsibility for.