Author : Bruinenberg, P.M.

Summary : Amylopectin potato starch was produced through genetic modification by anti-sensing the enzyme responsible for amylose formation. A biosafety study has been performed for two commercial cultivars Apriori and Apropos. In the biosafety study for the environment it was found that Agrobacterium mediated transfer of antisense-DNA resulted into complex inserts in the potato genome with multiple T-DNA inserts. No plants with complete antisense effect (0% of amylose) were detected which did not have these multiple T-DNA inserts. Beside the T-DNA also bacterial-DNA was inserted. DNA sequence analysis and database searches indicated that none of the sequences present on the vector will lead to known toxic or other environmentally hazardous effects. Studies showed that the inserts are stably introduced in the genome. Potatoes are reproduced a-sexually through tubers. These amylopectin potatoes are starch potatoes for industrial processing only and they are not suitable as consumer potatoes. Food and feed safety studies were performed for the co-products of the starch winning process. Reports were validated by four independent scientific institutes and a 90-day feeding trial with rats with uncooked potatoes was performed. No chemical differences -except for amylose content-were detected between the starch and the co-products of starch processing. Natural toxicants such as e.g. glycoalcoloids were unchanged in the GMO as compared to normal starch potatoes. It was concluded that the potatoes and the products of the starch winning were substantially equivalent. In the Netherlands amylopectin potato starch was approved according to the Dutch Novel Food regulation, whereas the co-products were approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for feed use.