OTTAWA (Staff) — Sometime this spring or summer, Health Canada expects to publish guidelines it will use to judge whether genetically-altered “novel foods” can be sold in Canada.
It will be the first real opening for what could become a flood of new foods created by biotechnology.
“We are essentially looking at updating our rules to deal with new types of products coming onto the market,” said Frank Welsh, science and policy liaison officer in the Health Canada food directorate.
After more than a year of consultations with the industry, guidelines are being rewritten and should be ready for publishing in spring or early summer, he said.
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Once those are public, companies with a “novel food” product to sell will be asked to provide all their supporting scientific data to the government and if the file is complete, they will be able to expect a decision within 90 days.
Specific regulations will take a bit longer to complete, since consultations are under way, said Welsh.
Genetically-altered
The definition of “novel food” developed by the department includes a product containing a genetically-altered organism or plant, products or processes never used in Canada before or new microorganisms.
The test for new biotechnology-produced “novel foods” will be the potential side-effects on the product makeup and the possibility that the food product could trigger unexpected allergies in consumers.
Welsh said he does not have an inherent suspicion of biotechnology being introduced into the food industry. “My feeling, and it is a personal feeling, is that genetic modification is really just another tool to be used by plant breeders and animal breeders.”
American authorities have been asked to approve for sale in the U.S. a biotech tomato that has a longer shelf life.
At present, Canada has no way to judge the safety of such products.
