GE foods experience a small, but expanding market
According to an article published in Amber Waves, although small, markets have been recently expanding for genetically engineered (GE) crops with traits that increase nutrient content or improve the taste of certain foods for consumers.
According to an article published in Amber Waves, although small, markets have been recently expanding for genetically engineered (GE) crops with traits that increase nutrient content or improve the taste of certain foods for consumers. Between 2013 and 2016, at least 40% of safety and nutritional consultations for GE crops received by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) covered these types of traits.
Consultations determine whether a GE food will be as safe as a food from a similar but conventionally bred crop, and are filed by companies that have developed GE plant varieties under FDA’s voluntary Plant Biotechnology Consultation Program. The FDA received six consultations in 2013 for GE potatoes with reduced potential to brown, bruise, and form acrylamide. Since then, more than 40 million pounds of these potatoes have been harvested in the United States. More recently, these same potato varieties have also been engineered to resist late blight, the disease that started the Irish potato famine of the mid-nineteenth century.
While companies are seeing the benefits of GE food, consumer perception is still an issue. The USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has tested the effects of different information on consumer demand for GE potatoes and potato products. Consumers who received information about the benefits of GE potatoes, as well as the risks of acrylamide exposure, were willing to pay a premium of $0.43 for a 5-pound bag of fresh Russet GE potatoes. By comparison, consumers who received only information about the risks of acrylamide exposure were willing to pay a premium of $0.55. And those who received information about the benefits of GE potatoes—but also concerns about the safety of GE foods—were willing to pay $0.28 less. Although research to date has found GE foods to be safe, these results are in line with other studies that find consumers generally respond differently to positive and negative information.