Summary : Conclusions: Based on its evaluation of the available scientific evidence, the Human Food Safety Panel reached the following conclusions: 1) Biotechnology, broadly defined, has a long history of use in food production and processing. It represents a continuum that encompasses both centuries-old traditional breeding techniques and the latest techniques based on molecular modification of genetic material, which are a major step forward by virtue of their precision and reach. The newer rDNA biotechnology techniques, in particular, offer the potential to rapidly and precisely improve the quantity and quality of food available; 2) Crops modified by modern molecular and cellular methods pose risks no different from those modified by earlier genetic methods for similar traits. Because the molecular methods are more specific, users of these methods will be more certain about the traits they introduce into the plants. 3) The evaluation of food, food ingredients, and animal feed obtained from organisms developed with the newer rDNA biotechnology techniques of genetic manipulation does not require a fundamental change in established principles of food safety; nor does it require a different standard of safety, even though, in fact, more information and a higher standard of safety are being required.; 4) The science that underlies rDNA biotechnology-derived foods does not support more stringent safety standards than those that apply to conventional foods; 5) The use of rDNA biotechnology and molecular techniques of genetic manipulation significantly broadens the scope of the genetic changes that can be made in food organisms and broadens the scope of possible sources of foods, but this does not inherently lead to foods, that are less safe than those developed by conventional techniques. By virtue of their greater precision, such products can be expected to be better characterized, leading to more predictability and a more reliable safety assessment process.