**4. The differences between functional foods and herbs with edited genomes**

Scientific evidence shows a great relationship between functional foods and improvement of physiological condition. It is also important to achieve health-related results, particularly in the case of chronic diseases and pandemics. Several studies and clinical trials for herbal nutrition exist. In fact, functional foods have been accepted as mainstream medicine for generations. Based on the literature review, it may be suggested that functional foods are safe to use. They have several health benefits such as preventing adverse effects, increasing the beneficial effect on health, and improving health status [1, 2, 9, 10, 15].

Genome editing of herbs is an exciting innovation for agricultural, nutritional, and pharmacological areas. Some foods designed to modify the genome have been in use for 25 years. This technology is addressed in the cultivation of first-generation transgenic crops, and it permits gene deletion, insertion, silencing, and gene knock-out. The main problem in genome editing is off-target effect. The off-target effect results in inadequacy and typing error, and undesired mutations occur. These off-target activities may change in organisms. However, any such mismatches can be guessed through computer programs [67]. There have been several studies to decrease these effects [68, 69].

Unlike random recombinant methods, CRISPR/Cas9 editing technology is accepted as target-specific. On the contrary, especially in rice, the off-target sites of CRISPR/ Cas9 editing are still unknown [70]. However, studies have shown that there are no nontarget DNA changes in rice mutants generated by CRISPR/Cas9, which should be important for the regulation of gene-modified breeding [71, 72]. In addition, it was reported that besides rice, *Arabidopsis*, cotton, and tobacco have indicated off-target mutations rarely [73]. However, some studies have indicated that off-target mutations are possible. Thus, genome editing still leaves room for improvement for the future.
