genetically modified food

Genetically modified food
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Genetically modified foods (GMO) result from biotechnological procedures that use recombinant DNA processes to alter the genetic makeup of food (Schneider, Schneider & Richardson, 2009). The recombination process involves changing an organism’s genes or moving them from one organism to another. Such changes will make the organism express attributes that were not available on the original organism (Bawa & Anilakumar, 2013). A company known as Calgene was the first to produce genetically modified food in the early 1990s (Diehl, 2018). The company engineered tomatoes by suppressing the polygalacturonase gene to produce the Flavr-Savr tomatoes which exhibited delayed softening after ripening (Bruening & Lyons, 2000).
Genetically modified food has a range of benefits in terms of reducing environmentally harmful pesticides and raising agricultural productivity (Qaim, 2010). With genetic modification, food supplies can become predictable. The nutritional content is also improved in genetically modified foods (Arya, 2015). The shelf life of genetically modified foods is longer than that of original foods. This makes the transportation process easier. Medical benefits are derived from GMO foods via a process known as pharming. Foods become more appealing after modification of colors via genetic modification (Vittana, 2017).
Several drawbacks of genetically modified foods have been established. T…