Does DNA break down sufficiently during food processing?
The answer is no, not for most commercial processing. DNA was found to survive intact through grinding, milling or dry heating, and incompletely degraded in silage. High temperatures (above 95 deg. C) or steam under pressure were required to degrade the DNA completely. “The results imply that stringent conditions are needed in the processing of GM plant tissues for feedstuffs to eliminate the possibility of transmission of transgenes.” The researchers warned. They pointed out for example, that the gene aad, conferring resistance to the antibiotics streptomycin and spectinomycin, is present in GM cottonseed approved for growth in US and elsewhere (Monsanto’s Bollgard (insect- protected) and Roundup Ready (herbicide tolerant)). Streptomycin is mainly used as a second-line drug for tuberculosis. But it is in the reatment of gonorrhoea that spectinomycin is most important. It is the drug of choice for treating strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae already resistant to penicillin and third gener
