Can genetic manipulation lead to new poisons in foods?

Answer 1

Certainly. Most plants produce small amounts of poisons, to fight off insects and diseases. Occasionally, mutation -- either spontaneous or caused accidently via artificial selection -- has increased these amounts, or led to plants producing poisons they hadn't before.

Two cases have been studied extensively. In one, a new variety of celery produced enough of a toxin (psoralen) to cause the field workers picking it to develop rashes. In another, a new variety of potato was discovered to contain a lot more the the toxic solanide glycosides than most other potatoes. Both of these crops were developed by artificial selection.

Answer 2

Absolutely. Just look at the body and how it responds to genetic mutation ie Trisomy-21. It's not so much genetics as it is the chemicals they use in food. For instance, meat at the supermarket is supposed to be brown, not red. Companies inject sodium nitrate in the meat to make it more appealing to the consumer. Sodium nitrate is a carcinogenic, that's why they say don't eat too much meat. Ever compare organic apples to regular apples in the store? Hmmm....it appears one has been waxed and the other hasn't.

Answer 3

I think the proper question here is how to AVOID poisoning our foods with genetic manipulation.

Answer 4

but not totally new poison, but you may decide to breed elevated levels of toxins (eg. for harvesting it for medical use) or quite commonly you make the plant produce a toxin from different organism to make it resistant to bugs/diseases so that you dont use pesticides so much it is like trading natural poisons for man made poisons. like Bt crops, u can look that out (provided you stay clear of disinformation produced by Greenpeace or something like that - they indeed dont care about the truth much and their statements are made such easy to believe for people who didnt actually study plant genetics...) . or u can make a cultivated plant produce a toxin that is found in its wild type relatives, bacause in nature plant produce plenty of toxins to fight off bugs, while cultivated varieties are becoming more sensitive, because they dont need to fight for survival. for instance wild apple trees and cultivated apple trees. or plum trees. if u did this breeding by conventional breednig methods it would logically take a lifetime to bring the toxins back in the culitivated varieties. so it is not brand new type of poison, never heard of such case unless it was missinterpreted. like that u give examples what might happen in gm crops, but accidentally FORGET to mention that the same is true for conventional breeding - like that any new variety might show assorted undesirable treats and people should test it before allowing it for large scale