Have all the risks of gene modification been evaluated?

Genetic modification is a succession of techniques based on scientific knowledge and practices, and includes the time necessary to assess the facts before products can be approved for the market. Investigation has concentrated on the possibility of risks related to the gene construction, its stability, transferability and the protein(s) it produces, as well as the issues of environmental impact and compositional changes of the final product. To assess whether a new food is substantially equivalent to a conventional food, three main factors are taken into account:

the composition and characteristics of the traditional product

the characteristics altered to produce the new food product, and how these change its composition

the characteristics and composition of the new food compared with the conventional food.