Guest guest Posted April 27, 2001 Report Share Posted April 27, 2001 The following is taken from a recent posting on the CELIAC digest. Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 21:22:14 -0500 Subject: Codex, gluten intro into corn, bioengineering Please feel free to pass this on to anyone (or any organization) who is interested in bioengineered wheat gluten introduction into other foods, such as corn. Email your questions to Gluten Biotech Watch: Marshall Chrostowski, mcfarm@.... Mardena Waller _____________________ Codex Alimentarius Commission is a United Nations body charged with the development of international standards for food safety and consumer protection, worldwide...INCLUDING what will be in foods in THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: http://www.fao.org/es/ESN/gm/allergygm.pdf p 5-7, CELIACS EXCLUDED! See p 20 for list of participants (3 from the United States, 28 total members). WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO CELIACS? This MEANS that genetically modified corn (and other products) CAN include wheat protein. It was reported that not one complaint in support of celiacs has been received! Until the final Codex is submitted to nations for inclusion in local legislation, there is always a chance to add celiac considerations. If Celiacs and Celiac organizations don't demand consideration of celiac concerns (and anyone avoiding gluten, such as autistics), celiac disease will be overlooked...ignored, and bioengineered wheat gluten will march forward. ______________________________________________________ World moving to set standards for GM foods, U.N. agency says Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) April 02, 2001 Rome (dpa) -Significant progress is being made in setting international standards regulating the sale of foods derived from biotechnology, the United Nations said in a statement published in Rome Monday. According to a special task force of the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation, near consensus has been reached on draft text legislating on the health concerns of genetically modified foodstuffs. The task force brings together officials from 35 countries and representatives of 24 non-governmental organisations, including ConsumersInternational, industry groups and Greenpeace. The commission is managed by Codex Alimentarius, a UN body charged with the development of international standards for food safety and consumer protection. The Codex Alimentarius Commission set up the ad hoc task force, which was hosted by Japan, in 1999. The task force's deadline has been set for July 2003, after which Codex Alimentarius's 165 member countries would be asked to include the text into their national legislation. dpa Copyright 2001 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH ---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ---------------- From: clare mills (IFR) Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 9:52 AM To: mcfarm@...' Subject: re Dear Marshall, Your enquiry regarding concerns of coeliacs regarding the potential for gluten proteins to become incorporated into other plant food species through genetic manipulation. I think many companies are aware of the potential problems that might be encountered regarding inclusion of allergenic proteins in GMO food crops and it is one of the main stop/go decisions in a safety evaluation scheme used in the assessment of the allergenic potential of novel foods. So I think it most regulators would take the view that such a GMO would be unacceptable. Nevertheless I appreciate your concerns. There has been a document published by WHO on this matter at http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/ECONOMIC/ESN/gm/biotec-e.htm It has some good documentation and really gives a comprehensive view on these matters.I hope this is of use - if need more information please do not hesitate to contact me, Best wishes Clare Dr Clare Mills, Institute of Food Research, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich, NR4 7UA UK Tel: 44-1603-255000 Fax:44-1603-255000 ______________________________________________________ Date: 2001.04.25 17:26 Received: 2001.04.25 17:35 From: Marshall Chrostowski, mcfarm@... To: clare mills (IFR), clare.mills@... CC: Mardena Waller, msomac@... Dear Clare, Many thanks for your thoughtful response. We are aware of the WHO/FAO/Codex materials and were pleased to find thorough recognition of coeliac problems and proposed language for labeling food containing wheat glutens. I have studied the FAO/WHO/ Joint Consultations on Foods Derived from Biotechnology and documents from several task forces. There are some disturbing inconsistencies in language among these documents (likely to be clarified by the 2003 deadline.) Even more disturbing is the expressed _exclusion_ of rDNA wheat gluten from allergenicity testing protocols. See p. 4 of http://www.fao.org/es/ESN/gm/allergygm.pdf In truth this body of experts will not recommend testing for recombinant gluten genes in food normally free of wheat glutens. We are concerned. I am not a trained geneticist so need a bit of guidance here. We believe this decision is potentially a threat to those with allergies and immunological challenges to wheat and especially glutens. We still have not been successful in tracking down on-going research into altering the wheat genome to inactivate the gluten proteins or intercede at the peptide-T cell interface. But hope springs eternal! Thank you again and best wishes, Marshall Chrostowski (for the Gluten Biotech Watch) Pacifica Graduate Institute 249 Lambert Road Carpinteria, CA 93013 USA ----------------- End Forwarded Message ----------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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