GMOs cause allergies: More false propaganda

I hear one concern about GMOs more than most and it is a concern that also comes up on surveys about why people are scared of GMOs.   People are fearful that they will be allergic to GMOs.   This Frankenfood has foreign DNA that is going to be harmful if you eat it.   I don't want to get off topic, but I want to clarify one thing. When two cultivars of the same crop species are crossed there is foreign DNA being introduced as two different plants combine DNA to make a new plant that is genetically different from its parents.   I know the argument then shifts to "well there is DNA from another species in my food with many GMOs."  I have a couple blog posts already showing that in nature foreign DNA from other species is being incorporated in plants,w including in foods we eat now like sweet potatoes.

But lets get back to allergies.   The GM plant is now making a new protein and so I might be allergic to GMOs.   It is true that food allergies come from proteins and biotech companies are well aware of allergen risks.  However if you read any anti-GMO propaganda you will quickly believe that allergens in GMOs are all over the place.  Again the fear mongering without the facts is rampant on the internet. Just one quick Google search and this was the first thing that pops up for me.

https://www.organicconsumers.org/old_articles/ge/allergies111603.php

Read this and you would think biotech companies are just carelessly putting products on the market.   Most of the proteins "have never been ......tested for their safety"   Really!!  Wow.  These lies are why the public has such a misconception of GMOs.  The FIRST thing a a company does in the early research is run any new protein against a database of known allergens.  If it is even remotely a hit the protein is dropped.  Secondly a new product takes 10-15 years to reach the market.  Agronomic testing and breeding multiple generations to get the final seed is part of that long timeline, but regulatory and safety testing is the other reason.  Any new product goes through a lot of testing to ensure the new protein is safe.

Go to http://www.allergenonline.com/ and dig around there for a bit.   This is a database maintained by the University of Lincoln-Nebraska and contains peer reviewed sequences of allergens.   There is so much science to make sure allergens are a non-issue in any GMO product.   This is a great database and not even the only one that will be used in an allergen cross-reference.

Here is an excerpt from an article on the same topic. When you get a chance check the entire article out at https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/04/16/are-gmos-causing-an-increase-in-allergies/

I have heard of people saying they cut out GMOs and all of a sudden there allergies were cured.   In the US, 90% of allergies come from peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat, soy, shellfish, and fish.   If you want to see what GM crops are approved then check out this nice resource:  http://www.isaaa.org/gmapprovaldatabase/.  The only GMO crop widely available in the US consumer market that is a known source for food allergies is soybean.   Monsanto is working on a wheat variety that will be resistance to Round-Up but it is limited in availability at this time.  So most of the allergy inducing foods out there aren't even GMO to begin with.

The GM varieties that are on the market are scrupulously tested for allergen hits before release.    In fact some I would wager that GM crops are tested more for allergens than many "non-GM" foods that have been introduced in the US.  Now I love Kiwi's, but they were not tested for allergens when introduced in the US in 1962.  However, Kiwis can cause serious allergies in some.  For more info on Kiwi allergies take a look at http://allergicliving.com/2010/09/01/serious-fruit-allergy-kiwi/    The fact remains that Kiwi's are not in the headlines as some evil food because it causes allergies.   If you are allergic to a protein in soybean, then you are going to be allergic to it no matter if it is GMO or non-GMO.  And when there is a GMO variety, there are a minor number of protein additions which again have been robustly tested for allergies. Everything else about the plant is the same as any other soybean plant.

The bottom line is I cannot say that no one out there will NEVER be allergic to a new protein from a GMO crop.  However you are more likely to be allergic to something that is already a known allergen than any protein that a biotech company discovers.  If a new protein shares an amino acid sequence (the building blocks of proteins that ultimately comes for a DNA sequence) with an allergen it is not going to be released.  Because of the strict science and knowledge of what causes food allergies in humans, no new protein from a GMO to date has been shown to cause an allergy no matter what the anti-GMO propaganda may say.

http://www.foodallergens.info/Facts/GMO.html