The Agriculture Department approved cultivation of the Innate potato developed by JR Simplot Co. and genetically engineered to produce smaller amounts of acrylamides when it is fried. Acrylamides are a neurotoxicant and potential carcinogen. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said the potato also is less susceptible to bruising, an attribute desired by growers and processors.
“The potato is one of a new wave of genetically modified crops that aim to provide benefits to consumers, not just to farmers as the widely grown biotech crops like herbicide-tolerant soybeans and corn do,” said the New York Times. A GMO apple that resists browning is awaiting approval. “The company calls its product the Innate potato because it does not contain genes from other species like bacteria, as do many biotech crops. Rather, it contains fragments of potato DNA that act to silence four of the potatoes’ own genes involved in the production of certain enzymes.”
A consumer group, Center for Food Safety, called USDA approval premature, said the Times, which quoted an official a the Center for Science in the Public Interest as saying that less exposure to acrylamides would be a benefit.
At the same time it approved the Innate potato, USDA approved a GE alfalfa developed by Monsanto and Forage Genetics International that produces less guaiacyl lignin, “a major subunit component of total lignin that slows the digestion of cellulose in livestock, as compared to conventional alfalfa at the same stage of growth.”
And, USDA set a 60-day comment period on a petition from Simplot for approval of a new strain of Innate potato engineered for resistance to late blight and to produce lower amounts of reducing sugars as well as being resistant to bruising and having “low acrylmaide potential.”