disorders of nutrition
Processed Foods, Organic Foods, and Bioengineered or Genetically Modified Foods
Bioengineered or Genetically Modified Foods
Bioengineered or genetically modified foodsare foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), bioengineered or genetically modified foods contain DNA that has been modified through laboratory techniques and that cannot be created through conventional breeding or found in nature. Genetically modified foods have existed in the US food supply since the early 1990s, and their safety in humans and animals is overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the USDA. Beginning in January 2022, foods require labeling that indicates whether they are a bioengineered food. These foods are often common ingredients in other foods and may be difficult to identify. Although consumption of bioengineered foods poses no risk to human health,food safety advocacy groups have raised concerns such as development of allergies (if the transferred DNA was taken from an allergenic food) and antibiotic resistance resulting from the consumption of herbicide-resistant crops that could theoretically transfer modified antibiotic-resistant genes to the human digestive tract. The WHO has stated that risk of such antibiotic resistance is very small, but not insignificant. 