GE salmon wins federal approval

After analyzing and evaluating information submitted by AquaBounty Technologies regarding AquAdvantage Salmon, the FDA determined that the company met the regulatory requirements for approval, including that food from the fish is safe to eat, said Bernadette Dunham, director of the FSA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

She also intendsto block the confirmation of Dr Robert Califf, nominee to be the next FDA Commissioner, due to the lack of cooperation and communication from the FDA surrounding its announcement to approve GE salmon.

The fish will be farmed in tanks on land, not in the water, in Panama and Canada.

As a result, the salmon grows faster, and needs less food to do so: the firm behind it, AquaBounty of MA, claims the fish grows twice as fast, and makes a gram of salmon flesh with 20 to 25 per cent less food. But critics of the GMO fish haven't backed down, and the latest to respond is the mega-retailer Costco. Alaska's 2015 harvest of five species of wild Pacific salmon, by comparison, came to 1,072,334,000 pounds valued at $414,219,000. However, under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act the FDA is only allowed to require additional labeling on genetically engineered food if there is a material difference in the genetically engineered product. "I will continue to work with my colleagues and industry stakeholders - like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's - who have already come out opposed to GE salmon, to halt this hazardous action by FDA". She called the FDA's approval "potentially disastrous" and said she will swiftly push legislation to mandate labeling of the modified fish.

"Genetically engineers salmon has no business on our dinner plates", said Sen. "At the bare minimum, we must ensure that GE salmon are labeled so consumers know exactly what they are purchasing and feeding to their families".

The FDA recognized that, although the law does not require that foods be labeled as genetically modified, many consumers want to know whether their food or any ingredient in the food is GE or derived from GE sources.

The documents are drafts for voluntary labeling and a final guidance on voluntary labeling.