-Hello. Today we have with us Dr. Marshall Martin, the director of agriculture
research to talk to us about the regulatory processes involved in a new
soybean that was developed as an oil alternative. Welcome Dr. Martin. Can you
tell us a little bit about why this soybean was developed?
-As we know it's
important in a balanced diet for for human consumption that we need some type
of cooking oil and we also want to be sure these oils we use from vegetable
sources are healthy for us and this one was developed primarily to thinking
about cardiovascular disease and one that has a composition of oils and fats
in it that's more healthy for our heart.
-Great. We know that high oleic soybean
is a transgenic plant or a GMO. To ensure safety are there safeguards are policies
in place that will protect consumers?
-Yes, there are. We have had in the United
States now for more than two decades a regulatory process of three agencies of
the US government - the Food and Drug Administration provides oversight on the
food safety, the USDA part of Agriculture has a division called the Animal Plant
Health Inspection Service that looks at implications for growing the crop in the
field, and finally we have the Environmental Protection Agency. It also
looks at any issue related to pesticide use for example this particular soybean
is in a Roundup Ready background material so it had to be regulated
relative to the control of weeds
when we grow this crop.
-Dr. Martin is this
process required?
-We actually have under our coordinated framework in the United
States for the regulation by these government agencies, a voluntary process,
but every company over the last several decades is brought to the market a crop
or a product that involves some type of transgenic procedure has sought the
approval of the government agencies. That gives them the assurance they can when
they go to market that they follow all of the highest
standards of regulation because we do live in a society where we are concerned
about you know lawsuits, and just like you like to see the Good Housekeeping
Seal of Approval it gives you some confidence in the product that it's been
properly has had proper oversight.
-So how maybe does it compare in terms of
regulation related to some other oils that that we might that we might
regularly consume like canola or something like that?
-Well canola oil is also can be a GMO crop most of it is grown in Canada and
it is also a very high quality oil and often used in human consumption in foods.
We also have olive oil which is a very high quality oil primarily produced in places
like like Spain or other countries, and we have sunflower oil and safflower oil
and corn oil so all of these are our oils we've been using for a long time.
Not all of them, however, have gone through this transgenic process that
we're talking about for this new soybean.
-So general generally they're regarded as safe.
-That's right, but still they have to go through the regulatory process
because of the way they have been genetically developed.
Great so speaking
of other countries there have been concerns with other GMO related
products internationally. So with this new soybean and this high oleic soybean
oil require approval from other nations before it's exported?
-Yes. Other countries
have their own governmental regulatory agencies that are similar to the ones in
the United States but they want to do their own evaluation within their own
countries. There are two companies that have developed this type of soybean -
one is DuPont Pioneer and their product is called Plenish and it's almost
completing the regulatory approval process in other countries. I think they
have approval in all major importing countries with the exception of the
European Union. Monsanto is the other company and their product is called
Vistive Gold. They have approval in some, but not all, countries at this point in
time. And so we do not want to put in the marketplace these products
prior to being approved and other key importing countries.
-So as a consumer if
I'm looking at a product is is it required to be labeled that it's high
oleic oil or what's,what's the labeling process?
-They're probably two primary
reasons we put label on food containers. One is from a nutritional point of view
in terms of the salt content, or perhaps how many calories, or information is
helpful to us as the consumer to to purchase food that meets our our dietary
requirements. The second reason given the concerns that some people have about the
transgenic process or the GMO type products is the Congress passed about
two years ago a law saying there should be some type of label information about
how these foods are produced. The US department of Agriculture is now going through
the process of determining how to best do that and they'll be making a
pronouncement in in the near future. It could be actual information on the
container or on the bottle. It could be a barcode that you could scan with your
smartphone and get the information, or it might direct you to a website to get
more detail.
-Great so consumers will have access to information.
-They will
-Great. Thank you so much today for sharing your expertise related to the reg ulatory
process.
-You're quite welcome
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