Is Your Food Safe?

America’s consumers today, whom are concerned with the food they are eating, will take time to look at nutritional information and the ingredients listed on the label. They check for the carbohydrates, fats, calories, sugars, and fiber. Consumers believe that thoroughly reading the label on this and other foods gives them some assurance that the food they are eating is healthy. The reason is that government standards require companies to list everything that goes into the package and ensure the ingredients are safe for human consumption. However, what if food producers were unaware ingredients of their food products were not intended for human consumption? How can food producers be assured they are producing a safe product? How can consumers really know what food they are consuming contains and if it is safe?

Although, American consumers may prefer not to consume genetically modified (GM) foods, the odds are they do (Jalonick). GM foods are plants that have been altered by use of DNA technology, by utilizing DNA molecules from different sources into a single molecule. In 1994, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the government agency charged with oversight for food safety, gave the Calgene Corporation approval to market their genetically modified Flavr Savr Tomato (Thayer). Since 1994, GM crops have become the most rapid form of agriculture adopted in modern history. Jalonick points out,” Last year, the USDA estimated that seventy percent of the nation's corn acreage was planted with herbicide-tolerant corn and sixty-three percent had been planted with insect-resistant seeds.” The GM acreage planted in soybeans and cotton is even higher.

Although, some consumer groups and scientific organizations argue that GM fo...

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