The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's expert meeting announced on the 11th that the first "genome editing food" in Japan was developed using the "genome editing" technology that allows the gene to be manipulated freely. It is expected that the distribution of genome-edited foods will start in the future.
The tomatoes that were approved for sale are tomatoes that have been genetically manipulated using genome editing technology to contain a large amount of amino acids called "GABA," which are said to lower blood pressure. The University of Tsukuba and this tomato are sold. It was jointly developed by a company aiming for.
An expert meeting of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said that it was confirmed that this tomato does not contain genes that tomatoes originally do not have, and that the number of substances that cause allergies and toxic substances has not increased. Approved the notification of sale as the first genome-edited food in Japan.
In order to sell genetically modified foods containing foreign genes that the crop does not originally have, such as the genes of other creatures, safety examination by the national "Food Safety Commission" is obligatory, but for genome-edited foods If the expert meeting of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare determines that safety examination is not necessary, a system that can be sold after notifying the government has been in operation since last year, and this is the first case that this system is applied. I will.
In response to this, the company completed the notification to the country on the 11th, and it is expected that the distribution of genome-edited foods will start in the future.
According to the company, in addition to starting to provide seedlings for home gardens free of charge from around spring next year through application on the Internet, we are aiming to distribute fruits as early as next year, and when selling, we edited the genome. It means to put a mark to indicate.