New Fear From Food Science: Stealth Allergen : Biology: Genetic engineering will make it more difficult to know what really is inside the casserole dish.
If you’re allergic to nuts, it’s easy enough to pass up the cocktail mix.
But it may not be so easy for people to pass up some of the potential allergy-triggering mixes from genetic manipulation of corn, tomatoes, squash and countless other foods.
What if, for example, something from a Brazil nut is put into some soybeans, which end up in everything from baby formula to bologna?
That kind of question would have seemed foolish before scientists learned to move genetic material from plant to plant, animal to plant, bacteria to plant, virus to plant.
Government regulators, biotech companies and physicians have grown increasingly concerned about the prospect of shuffling allergens into the deck of a food’s DNA.
After all, the price of wrongful noshing runs from hives to a life-threatening asthma attack for any of the millions of Americans who are allergic to nuts, eggs, milk peanuts and other foods.
“Anything that you transfer raises a question,” said Dr. Hugh A. Sampson, pediatrician and food allergy specialist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “You’ve just got to decide how likely is it to be a problem.”
Scientists hope that by adding, deleting or changing hereditary traits they can develop crops that taste better, stay fresh longer, offer more nutrients and fewer fats, resist pests, or tolerate herbicides.
But the effort by the world’s largest seed company to pack more nourishment into a soybean shows what a risky business genetic engineering can be--and how well the few safeguards have worked so far.
Researchers at Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. of Des Moines knew that Brazil nuts have methionine, a sulfur-rich amino acid that livestock and poultry need.
Soybeans are a top livestock feed, but they are poor in sulfur. Adding methionine would make the soybeans more of a superfeed.
But Pioneer knew about the allergy problem. The Food and Drug Administration told biotech companies in May, 1992, to check for allergens when they test the safety of their products.
Pioneer asked for help from Stephen Taylor, head of the food science department of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
Taylor tried the product on blood serum from people with nut allergies and found there was a reaction.
“We are evaluating the research project for the best path forward,” said Steve Daugherty, company spokesman.
Options include finding a way to transfer the protein without the allergen, or dropping the project altogether.
The test showed it is possible to screen bio-engineered foods for known allergens. It also holds out the promise that scientists can use biotechnology to start snipping out allergens.
But biotechnology also raises the specter of creating or adding new allergy-inducing substances to the food supply from sources like the viral coat proteins that can help a plant resist disease.
Many scientists argue that the risks are low, particularly since it appears that only a handful of the tens of thousands of proteins out there cause allergies. The new materials introduced by genetic engineering are added in low levels and may not be present in the edible part of the food.
Still, ignorance about food allergies makes it difficult to get as clear a picture of the hazards as most scientists would like.
“There’s no foolproof test” for suspected allergens, said Taylor, who nonetheless believes the risks are acceptable.
Scientists estimate that food allergies afflict about 2% of young children and 1% of adults.
Peanuts, milk, eggs, soybeans, fish and shellfish top the list of allergy-causing foods in this country.
The biotechnology revolution could be a boost for food allergy researchers.
“Why would you go out and spend millions of dollars isolating dozens of food allergens when you have no purpose for it?” said Dr. Dean Metcalfe, of the government’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Suddenly, now, you need it.”
