{"id":19956,"date":"2015-11-19T18:23:03","date_gmt":"2015-11-20T02:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/genetically-engineered-salmon-okd\/"},"modified":"2015-11-19T18:23:03","modified_gmt":"2015-11-20T02:23:03","slug":"genetically-engineered-salmon-okd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/genetically-engineered-salmon-okd\/","title":{"rendered":"Genetically engineered salmon OK’d"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON <\/strong>\u2014 What\u2019s for dinner? Before long, it may well be genetically modified salmon, the first such altered animal cleared for human consumption in the United States.<\/p>\n

Critics call it \u201cfrankenfish,\u201d but the Food and Drug Administration granted its approval on Thursday, saying the faster-growing salmon is safe to eat. It could be available in a couple of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no biologically relevant differences in the nutritional profile of AquAdvantage Salmon compared to that of other farm-raised Atlantic salmon,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration had stalled in approving the salmon for more than five years amid consumer concerns about genetically modified foods. The fish grows twice as fast as normal salmon, so it reaches market size more quickly.<\/p>\n

AquAdvantage Salmon is engineered by the Massachusetts-based company AquaBounty. Ron Stotish, the company\u2019s CEO, said in a statement that the fish is a \u201cgame changer that brings healthy and nutritious food to consumers in an environmentally responsible manner without damaging the ocean and other marine habitats.\u201d<\/p>\n

AquaBounty said the fish could be on grocery store shelves in about two years, which is how long it takes the salmon to grow.<\/p>\n

Once the salmon reach stores, consumers may not know they are eating them. Because there are no material differences between an engineered and a normal salmon, the FDA says the law does not require the fish to be labeled as engineered. AquaBounty says that genetically modified salmon have the same flavor, texture, color and odor as the conventional fish.<\/p>\n

The FDA released separate wording that would set guidelines for retailers who do want to label the fish, along with additional guidance for voluntary labeling of genetically modified plant foods.<\/p>\n

Some retailers have said they won\u2019t sell the fish at all \u2014 retailers Whole Foods, Trader Joe\u2019s, Target and Kroger have all said they are not planning to sell AquAdvantage Salmon.<\/p>\n

Critics have pressured retailers to reject the salmon, which they have labeled \u201cFrankenfish.\u201d They worry it could cause human allergies and the eventual decimation of the natural salmon population if it escapes into the wild.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no place on our dinner plates for genetically engineered fish,\u201d said Lisa Archer of the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth. \u201cWe will continue to work to ensure the market, from grocery retailers to restaurants, continues to listen to the majority of consumers that don\u2019t want to eat this poorly studied, unlabeled genetically engineered fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just hours after the announcement, another advocacy group, The Center for Food Safety, said it would sue FDA to block the approval.<\/p>\n

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, has said the engineered salmon could harm her state\u2019s wild salmon industry. She took to the Senate floor to criticize the FDA shortly after the announcement, saying she was \u201cspitting mad.\u201d She and other Alaska and Pacific Northwest lawmakers said they will swiftly push legislation to mandate labeling of the modified fish.<\/p>\n

The FDA said the salmon will be allowed to be raised only in land-based, contained hatchery tanks at two facilities in Canada and Panama, and that other facilities in the U.S. or elsewhere cannot breed or raise the salmon for human consumption. Those restrictions limit the amount of food the company can produce.<\/p>\n

The agency said that there are \u201cmultiple and redundant levels of physical barriers\u201d in the facilities to prevent the escape of fish. The fish would be bred to be female and sterile, so if any did escape, they should not be able to breed.<\/p>\n

The salmon has an added growth hormone from the Pacific Chinook salmon that allows that fish to produce growth hormone all year long. Engineers have been able to keep the hormone active by using another gene from an eel-like fish called an ocean pout that acts like an \u201con\u201d switch. Typical Atlantic salmon produce the growth hormone for only part of the year.<\/p>\n

Bernadette Dunham, director of the FDA\u2019s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said the agency \u201chas thoroughly analyzed and evaluated the data and information\u201d submitted by AquaBounty. To approve an engineered animal for human consumption, the agency reviews a company\u2019s data and must determine that the food is safe to eat, that the engineering is safe for the fish and that the company\u2019s claim \u2014 in this case, faster growth \u2014 is accurate.<\/p>\n

AquaBounty\u2019s Stotish said he is hopeful the fish will gain consumer acceptance as people learn more about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think time and education and information may allow many of these folks to change their mind,\u201d he said of critics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 What\u2019s for dinner? Before long, it may well be genetically modified salmon, the first such altered animal cleared for human consumption in the United States. Critics call it \u201cfrankenfish,\u201d but the Food and Drug Administration granted its approval on Thursday, saying the faster-growing salmon is safe to eat. It could be available in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19956"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}