India Moves Forward with First “Functional Food”
India is looking to be the first country to approve a “functional food” — a genetically modified crop designed to enhance its nutritional value — with efforts kicking into high gear for a high-protein potato.
Potatoes have very little protein to begin with — about two percent by mass — and the enhanced potato only increases that by 30 to 50 percent. But the potato is also rich in amino acids lysine and methionine. The changes are caused by inserting a gene from the South American amaranth plant.
Although India has yet to approve any GM foods for human consumption (it returned 10,000 tons of GM corn donated by a charity last year), the head of India’s biotechnology program is talking about including the new potato in school children’s lunches within a year.
The potato has been undergoing field trials for the last three years, and media accounts suggested the potato could get final approval by the end of 2003.
Sources:
‘Protato’ Leaves Bad Taste in Critics’ Mouth. Ranjit Devraj, June 13, 2003.
Scientists develop GM ‘protato’ to feed India’s poorest children. John Vidal, The Guardian, June 12, 2003.
India’s search for enhanced food. Pallab Ghosh, The BBC, June 11, 2003.
The India Moves Forward with First “Functional Food” by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Tags: India