• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.278-288
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• 2011

This study was conducted to evaluate the safety of ${\beta}$-carotene biofortified rice, a genetically modified organism (GMO) developed by Rural Development Administration. ${\beta}$-carotene biofortified rice were exposed on Sprague-Dawley rats for 13 weeks. All rats survived until the end of the exposure period. There were no biologically significant differences in body weight, feed and water consumption, weight gains and feed efficiency. There were no clinical signs of toxicity attributable to exposure to GM rice. Mild decreases in AST, ALT, TG levels were observed in Group II (25% GM rice (w/w) and Group III (50% GM rice (w/w), both in females and males. Results of histopathological changes treated with the ${\beta}$-carotene biofortified rice had no significant differences between the control and treatment groups. Based on these results, we deemed that genetically modified ${\beta}$-carotene biofortified rice was as safe as conventional rice.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.84-87
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• 2008

We used RT-PCR to measure housekeeping gene expression in mice fed GM and non-GM cabbage, in an effort to evaluate the risk of GM food to humans. After normalization of housekeeping gene levels, highly uniform expression may be seen in many organisms during various stages of development and under different environmental conditions. We assessed the expression of four genes in Chinese cabbage; these were Profilin, Tubulin-alpha (Tub-1), Heat-shock protein (Bchsp 17.6), and Ubiquitin conjugating enzyme (UBE). We measured the expression of four well-known housekeeping genes in mice: ${\beta}$-actin, (${\beta}$-act), ${\beta}$-2-microglobulin(B2m), Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and ${\beta}$-glucuronidase (Gus). Gene expression was measured in liver, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, kidney, and spleen of mice fed GM or non-GM cabbage. No significant expression differences were found.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.17
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• pp.167-171
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• 2001

The introduction of genetically modified crops has raised concerns regarding safety issues over the insertion of foreign genes into plant genomes using recombinant DNA technology. Since 1991 in Japan, 29 foods and 6 food additives have been evaluated, based on the "Guideline for Safety Assessment", before these foods were marketed. The MHW, however, decided that safety assessment of such foods and food additives should be legally imposed. because soon such foods and food additives are expected to circulate globally and a new system for assessing safety of such foods and food additives at a pre-market stage is necessary, in order to avoid the distribution of any genetically modified foods that have had no safety assessment. The MHW published relevant announcements to amend existing regulations on 1 May 2000. "Standards for safety assessment of seed plant" is established based on a concept of substantial equivalence, and applicable to the products which are regarded as equivalent to the existing products used as foods and food additives. The characterization of the food products entails consideration of the molecular characterization. phenotypic and compositional characteristics, key nutrients and toxicants, and toxicity and allergenicity of the introduced proteins, and if there are indications of unintended effects of the modification, whether further safety testing (animal studies etc.) is needed should be considered. Safety and wholesomeness studies with whole foods should be care fully designed in order to avoid nutritional imbalances causing artifacts and uninterpretable results as was the case of Dr. Pusztaiis report. A case study of genetically modified soybeans (glyphosate-tolerant soybeans) on the immune system of rats and mice is shown. Chemical compositions were also compared with those of the non-GM soybeans. The studies failed to detect any differences in immuno-toxic activity.muno-toxic activity.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.192-199
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• 2012

BACKGROUND: Genetically modified (GM) crops must receive relevant regulator's authorization before they can be sold as seed or used food, feed and processing. Before approving any GM crop, the relevant government ministries are required to examine environmental risk assessment to make scientifically sound and socially acceptable decisions. But one of the least studied and understood areas in the environmental risk assessment of GM crops are their impact on soil microbial community. METHODS AND RESULTS: Recently, advanced methods have been developed to characterize the soil microbial community in various environments. In this study, the culture-dependent and culture-independent technical approaches for profiling soil microbial communities are summarized and their applicability to assess GM crops are discussed. CONCLUSION(S): We concluded that the effect of GM crops on soil microbial community need to be assessed on a case by case basis. The combination of culture-dependent and culture-independent method was necessary for reliable and detailed assessment of effect of GM crops on soil microbial community.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.658-662
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• 2011

In this study, 543 samples of press hams, sausages, processed ground meat and processed cheese acquired from retail markets in Seoul and Gyeonggi province in Korea from 2005 to 2010 were monitored using a one-step multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method that involves the amplification of specific soya or maize endogenous genes and the amplification of 35S promoter (p35S) and nopaline synthase terminator (tNOS) for GMO detection. Among the 543 samples, 477 samples were amplified for maize and/or soybean endogenous genes. Although one sausage sample collected in 2008 showed amplification of tNOS, the result was assumed to be false positive based on the results from further tests of other sausage samples of the same brand. Our results demonstrate the absence of GM soya and/or maze of livestock products in the Korean market during 2005-2010. In addition, the one-step multiplex PCR using previously constructed primer sets appears to be useful as a screening method for the detection of GMOs in processed livestock products. However, more specific methods should be established and employed to detect the event-specific GM gene for positive reaction samples by screening tests in processed livestock products.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.556-560
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• 2003

It was determined whether the sandwich ELISA using specific anti-CP4 EPSPS polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, developed in the previous study, could be applied to detect GM soybean or not. The soybeans (47 imported and 20 domestic soybeans) were analyzed by a sandwich ELISA. The results of imported soybeans were divided into two groups which were high contents $(39.1{\pm}13.5\;{\mu}g/g,\;n=33)$ and low contents of CP4 EPSPS $(2.6{\pm}1.2\;{\mu}g/g,\;n=14)$. The ratio of GM in imported soybeans was about 70.2%. One the other hand, the contents of CP4 EPSPS in domestic soybeans was very low $(0.9{\pm}0.5\;{\mu}g/g,\;n=20)$ which determined to be non-GM soybeans. In case of soybean sprouts, the contents of CP4 EPSPS in soybean sprouts were different between GM and non-GM soybean sprout. The CP4 EPSPS in cotyledon of GM soybeans sprout was higher than that in root hair. The contents of CP4 EPSPS in soybeans sprout of domestic soybeans were very low. Thus, it was possible to determine that the soybeans sprout was made of GM or non-GM soybeans. Also, PCR experiment showed that the sandwich ELISA was accurate to distinguish the soybeans to be GM or non-GM. These results showed the sandwich ELISA could determine the soybeans were GM or non-GM, rapidly and simply.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.22-35
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• 2005

A survey was conducted to investigate the perception of food sanitation officers toward the Genetically Modified Foods. They were mainly from Regional Agencies of KFDA, City/Province office, and National quarantine station. Some of them were professors of university and researchers of research institute. Most of respondents had experiences of hearing or reading GM foods (over $95\%$) and over $90\%$ of respondents much needed the label of GM foods. Although some of officers of city/province office and national quarantine station showed less knowledge than other respondent groups, most of respondents had basic knowledge about biology. The frequency of respondents worked over 20 years and worked in the general administration was higher than that of other groups in the question of unsafe of GM foods. The answer frequency of careless treatment of foods was highest in the question of risk factor, and the frequency of GM foods was lowest ($4.4\%$). It was concluded that food sanitation officers had positive opinion about GM foods, but there were some differences in the knowledge among agencies. Therefore, it is necessary more educations and informations are needed for food sanitation officers.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.139-157
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• 2006

Biotechnology has reached the level of giving birth to new forms of life and with this is a growing controversy in the conflict between science and ethics. Especially, GMOs are closely linked to the food products we consume and thus, the majority of the public shows a very sensitive reaction to the safety of GMO food products. Many perspectives arose surrounding the issues of safety on the human body and the ecology. This outlines diverse structural mechanisms to be set up to ensure safety such as risk assessment, risk management etc. Despite the precautionary principle guaranteed in many ways, the problem arises whether and how this principle can be taken in the safety assessment. GMOs due to its uniqueness do not end with just the possession of the technology involved but must also be considered with the prerequisite that they could be cultured again. Therefore the reinforcement of safety assessment system is necessary. That is, the reinforcement of risk assessment including field tests, the consideration of socio-economic effects, the coordinated system of relevant authorities, the development of technology for safety assessment.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.88-93
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• 2008

This paper focused on the detection of the genetically modified soybean (Glycine max L. MERRILL) samples to search for the speedy analysis methods. We have identified the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) assay with a newly developed technique called DHPLC (denaturing high performance liquid chromatography) to screen the GMO in soybean. The DHPLC is i1s ability to directly detection specific sequences of DNA by using column. With these characteristics. the DHPLC assay had the advantage of simplicity, rapidty could obtain result within 20 minutes. Whereas $15{\times}10^{-4}ng/{\mu}L$ concentration could be detected with the PCR analysis, $15{\times}10^{-5}ng/{\mu}L$ concentration could be detected with the DHPLC method. Therefore, DHPLC method was considered to be a simple, fast and sensitivity screening method rather than PCR analysis for GMO detection in soybean.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.450-458
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of risk perception characteristics for food risk elements using a psychometric paradigm from 298 university students in Yeungnam region, Korea, by a self-administered questionnaire. The respondents showed the highest level of risk concern about radioactive contaminated foods and the lowest level about GM (genetically modified) foods. In the risk perception characteristics for food risk elements, they perceived radioactive contaminated foods as a catastrophic, worried, new, and uncontrollable risk. In addition, they regarded food additives and foodborne illness as a chronic, controllable, old, and scientifically and individually known risk. According to the results of the factor analysis for risk perception characteristics, dread and unknown were categorized. In the risk perception map, mad cow disease, heavy metal contaminated foods, and radioactive contaminated foods were considered as a dreaded and unknown risk, whereas pesticide residues and GM foods were perceived as a less dreaded and unknown risk. Additionally, food additives and foodborne illness were regarded as a less dreaded and known risk and endocrine disruptors and avian influenza as a dreaded and known risk. These results imply that risk perception characteristics of consumers should be considered to establish strategies for risk communication in food science.