**5. Future perspectives: genomic foods have protective effects on health or not?**

Most national authorities consider the need for a specific evaluation of genetically modified foods. Certain specific systems for assessing foods intended to modify genes for humans and the environment have been improved. Therefore, the World Health

#### *Is There Still Room to Improve Medicinal Herbs (Functional Herbs) by Gene Editing for Health? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104323*

Organization's (WHO's) The Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses requests national authorities to implement risk assessment procedures and recommend safety assessment approaches.

Theoretical discussions were raised regarding the effectiveness of editing the food genome. However, discussing the potentials for stimulating allergenicity, gene transfer and outcrossing are the fact of the matter. For allergenicity, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and WHO have evaluated the protocols for testing of genome editing of foods, and no allergic effects were found right now on marketing. It was reported that plant breeding could cause high toxins and allergen concentration in plants. Also, a number of food poisoning could be done due to new varieties into food chain [74]. Gene transfer technology is encouraged with antibiotic resistance genes because of the concern of transferred genetic material from genome-edited foods to humans. Outcrossing is the migration of genes from genome editing plants into conventional crops, which is also mixing of crops from conventional seeds with genome editing crops. This has an indirect effect on food security. There are studies reporting that genome modification cultures for animal feed have been determined to products for humans in a low value. In this way, several countries have adopted major strategies aimed at reducing the mixing and separation of fields where genome editing and conventional crops are grown.

In addition, antibiotic resistance, immunosuppression, cancer, and loss of nutrition can also be counted for unexpected effects and health risks of genome editing technology. It can be said that all genome-edited foods contain antibiotic resistance markers to help identify the transferring of new genetic material into host food. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) introduces these antibiotic markers into the food on a widespread basis. Because of this, some important antibiotics against human illnesses could be made unnecessary. Even though the FDA ignored the issue, the British Medical Association (BMA) has concluded that antibiotic marker genes in the modification of the food genome should constitute a risk to human health and the development of microorganisms is going to be a very important issue in the twenty-first century. In addition, some researchers have shown that changes in the potato genome have significant negative effects on immunity and organ development in rats. They found a valid link between changing the food's genome and immunosuppression [75]. Also, in 1993, a study about engineering recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) resulted in concerns. Researchers showed that levels of hormone called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) are increased in dairy cows treated with rBGH. This hormone, IGF-1, is an important factor for breast cancer, colon cancer, or prostate cancer [76]. Another concern was that modifying the genome may alter the nutritional value of foods. Researchers reported that some foods are in "undesirable alteration in the level of nutrients" and noted the nutritional changes. However, these findings were not considered by the FDA in their studies. Nevertheless, the WHO has pointed out that the modification of the genome of foods currently available on the international market is safe and does not pose a risk to human health. In addition, it was indicated that the principles of Codex Alimentarius must be applied on an ongoing basis and that post-market monitoring should ensure the safety of foods for genome editing [77].
