The food safety assessment of new agricultural crop varieties developed through biotechnology includes
evaluation of the proteins introduced to impart desired traits. Safety assessments can include dietary risk
assessments similar to those performed for chemicals intentionally, or inadvertently added to foods. For
chemicals, it is assumed they are not degraded during processing of the crop into food fractions. For introduced
proteins, the situation can be different. Proteins are highly dependent on physical forces in their
environment to maintain appropriate three-dimensional structure that supports functional activity. Food
crops such as corn and soy are not consumed raw but are extensively processed into various food fractions.
During processing, proteins in corn and soy are subjected to harsh environmental conditions that
drastically change the physical forces leading to denaturation and loss of protein function. These conditions
include thermal processing, changes in pH, reducing agents, mechanical shearing etc. Studies have
shown that processing of introduced proteins such as enzymes that impart herbicide tolerance or proteins
that control insect pests leads to a complete loss of functional activity. Thus, dietary exposure to
functionally active proteins in processed food products can be negligible and below levels of any safety
concerns.