6. General views on the safety of GM crops

Some consumer concerns brought forward were regarding the safety of GM crops, food and feed [42]. As a result, the production of GM crops led to increased investigations within government regulatory boards in terms of research required to determine the safety of these products [43]. Activists, particularly in Europe, have intensified their opposition to the introduction and production of GM crops, food and feed [44]. To date, no international consensus has been reached for evaluation of the safety of GM plants for consumption. Over the last decade, the safety of GM crops has been routinely tested in some countries and protein- and DNA-based methods have been developed for testing of GM crops. Worldwide, legislation now faces questions on the use and labeling requirements of GM crops and their derivatives. However, there are still concerns about the safety of GM crops [9, 45]. Also, GM crops could contain toxic substances produced as by-products of the expression of the transgene. Moreover, the GM crops might not be substantially equivalent at the genome-, proteome- and metabolome levels to traditional untransformed counterparts due to possible disruption of the expression of endogenous genes.

Extensive safety assessments are an important component of the production of GM crops [46]. There are factors that are essential to interrogate to understand the impact of the expression of the "foreign" transgene on the expression of endogenous genes and on the host plant as a whole [32, 47].
