Food Safety Concerns

SCOPE AND GOAL

This chapter identifies potential food safety concerns for meat or animal products derived from animal biotechnology. The species considered include beef and dairy cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, swine, rabbits, and a wide array of finfishes and shellfishes.

The scope of this chapter encompasses: (1) non-genetically engineered animals that are propagated by nuclear transfer or other cloning techniques, (2) genetically engineered animals developed primarily for meat, milk, or eggs, and (3) genetically engineered animals developed for biomedical or industrial products. This latter category is considered because entry of these animals into the food chain might be proposed at the end of their productive life or sooner, as in the case of unused females and males, which typically are not used to generate the recombinant product (e.g., bulls in which the recombinant protein is expressed in the mammary gland).

The criteria used for identifying important scientific issues were developed considering the hazard (i.e., a compound or agent that has the potential to produce harm), the likelihood of harm resulting from exposure to the hazardous compound or agent, the likelihood that exposure to the hazard would occur, and the severity of any harm that would be realized. In this context, harm ranges from allergic reactions to other forms of illness, including, in the extreme case, death. Concerns are described on a scale ranging from no concern, to low level of concern, to moderate level of concern, and to high level of concern.

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