Application of laws, policies, and guidance from the United States and Canada to the regulation of food and feed derived from genetically modified crops: interpretation of composition data.

With the development of recombinant DNA techniques for genetically modifying plants to exhibit beneficial traits, laws and regulations were adopted to ensure the safety of food and feed derived from such plants. This paper focuses on the regulation of genetically modified (GM) plants in Canada and the United States, with emphasis on the results of the compositional analysis routinely utilized as an indicator of possible unintended effects resulting from genetic modification. This work discusses the mandate of Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as well as the U.

Editor's choice: Evaluating the potential for adverse interactions within genetically engineered breeding stacks.

When genetically engineered stacks (also known as stacked or combined events) are produced by combining two or more single transgenic events by conventional breeding, the potential for interactions between the products of the events that impact food and feed safety can be evaluated and the need for further safety assessment can be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Trans fatty acids: current contents in Canadian foods and estimated intake levels for the Canadian population.

Research conducted in the mid-1990s indicated that the levels of trans fats in Canadian diets were among the highest in the world. The consumption of trans fats raises blood levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, while reducing levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol. In June 2007, Health Canada called on the food industry to voluntarily reduce levels of trans fats in vegetable oils and soft (tub)-margarines to < 2% of total fat, and in all other foods, to < 5%.