Genetically Modified Organisms in Food: Methodological Challenges Based on Technological Advances and Labeling

• Autor(a) principal: Lawson-Ferreira, Rafael
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Cardarelli-Leite, Paola, Trotta, Renata Barroso Ferreira, Branquinho, Maria Regina
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Vigilância Sanitária em Debate
• Texto Completo: https://visaemdebate.incqs.fiocruz.br/index.php/visaemdebate/article/view/344
• topic: OGM; Alimentos; Rotulagem; Detecção; GMO; Food; Labeling; Detection

The cultivated area and extent of genetically modified (GM) plants and the development of new genetic constructs that give rise to new events have considerably increased in Brazil as well as worldwide. This panorama is expected to continue. The main challenges faced by food analysts, particularly those from public health laboratories, arise from many technological advances in the inserted genetic constructs on plant development and legislative issues related to the labeling of these products. This article addresses the need to revise Decree 4680/2003 (labeling of GM foods), the lack and high cost of access to reference materials used in analyses, the difficulty in initiating new event-specific screening, quantitative techniques as well as high-throughput detection systems, and the limited number of official laboratories working in this area in Brazil. The shift in this analytical framework will require improved investments in financial and human resources for more effective sanitary surveillance actions.