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The U.S. food and drug safety system is considered among the best in the world, and Rissler has no doubt the drugs derived from biopharming will undergo extensive safety testing. However, those responsible for food safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have not put strict regulations into place to prevent pharmalogically-active proteins from slipping into America's foods, she said.
And that is despite the fact it almost happened two years ago, when experimental maize plants containing a pig vaccine were accidentally mixed with about 14 million kilograms of soybeans in the U.S. mid-west. ProdiGene, the Texas biotech company responsible for the mishap paid three million dollars in clean-up costs and fines. All of the soy was destroyed.
The USDA tightened its rules after the huge public outcry, which even included the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO), the powerful U.S. biotech industry lobby,asking its members to start growing biopharma crops in more isolated regions.
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