Rigorously assess safety of all foods
Many Canadians may not be aware that the federal minister of Health has just decided to allow companies to do their own safety assessments for many new genetically engineered foods.
Health Canada will now let companies sell some genetically engineered foods without any government safety checks. Companies won’t even be required to tell Health Canada that these new foods exist. Many of them will be produced by the new genetic engineering techniques called gene editing.
I think we all want to that our government rigorously assesses the safety of all foods, including any new gene-edited foods. I don’t trust private companies to properly test the safety of their own products if no one else is watching. We need independent science and government oversight to ensure food safety.
P. Foot
Duncan