Welfare for the notification of red sea bream, which has been bred and increased in quantity by using "genome editing" technology that can freely manipulate genes, as a "genome editing food" required for distribution by a venture company in Kyoto City. I went to the Ministry of Labor.
Since the company has started accepting trial sales, it is the second case in Japan to sell "genome-edited foods".
The notification was made for red sea bream, which has increased its body weight by about 1.2 times compared to normal using genome editing technology, and was jointly developed by Kyoto City venture company "Regional Fish" with Kyoto University and Kinki University. Did.
Unlike "genetically modified foods", "genome-edited foods" do not incorporate other genes, so they can be distributed by notifying the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, saying that they are the same as conventional breeding and safety. It has become.
In this red sea bream, a protein called "myostatin" that suppresses muscle growth and growth is prevented from working by genome editing technology, but another gene was found at a special study meeting of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare held on the 17th. In response to the fact that it was not incorporated and was not classified as a "genetically modified food", the company filed a notification as a "genome-edited food" and announced it on the website of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
According to the company, the number of "genome-edited foods" sold in "genome-edited foods" is two in Japan, following tomatoes that have been bred to contain many ingredients that are said to lower blood pressure because they have started accepting trial sales. It will be an eye.
Venture company that made a notification “I want to revitalize the local economy”
A venture company in Kyoto City, which reported the increased amount of red sea bream to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare as a "genome-edited food", held a press conference in Tokyo and revealed that it will start accepting trial sales from the 17th. bottom.
Tadanori Umekawa, president of Kyoto City's venture company "Regional Fish", who held a meeting after the notification, said, "It will be the world's first animal food that has been bred with genome editing technology. On top of that, I would like to make a commercial sales outlook. In the future, we will continue to improve fish varieties by genome editing technology, and by developing varieties that suit the seawater environment of each region, it will lead to revitalization of the regional economy. I want to go. "
The company will start accepting sets of genome-edited red sea bream such as "Kombujime" and "Taimeshi" on a trial basis using a crowdfunding mechanism, and will deliver them sequentially from next month. Is to do.
In addition to displaying that it is a "genome-edited food" on the package at the time of distribution, it is also possible to know information such as the shipper and the place of origin using the QR code.