As you walk into the aisle of your local grocery store, you have probably seen various labels on your favorite cereal or snack that says “Non GMO Project Verified”, right? But what does GMO really mean? And are they safe to eat?

As the world population continues to skyrocket, the availability of arable land to grow crops has decreased, increasing the global demand for nutritious food. Fortunately, biotechnology involving the use of genetic engineering has emerged as a powerful tool for improving the quantity and quality of food supply. Any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques is known as a “genetically modified organism” or GMO, for short. The aim of genetically modified foods is to enhance productivity, decrease the use of pesticides, and improve the nutritional value of the food. You’re probably thinking, “I have never eaten a genetically modified food before!” Well, actually, you probably have! A lot of corn, soybean, potato, and papaya are actually genetically modified to resist diseases, and provide extra nutritional value and taste!

Exactly how do foods get genetically modified? We can take a look at the crown gall free apple, a genetically engineered food. For this GMO, gene silencing is used to generate resistance to crown gall, a plant disease caused by the soil-inhabiting bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens. This method involves transforming plants with DNA that, when expressed, produces signals that block the expression of any genes with the same sequence as the inserted DNA. Plants transformed with these interfering versions of the three enzyme genes would be primed to block the function of the corresponding bacterial genes in infected plants. Although this has been proven effective, there are some concerns with consuming the crown gall free apple. When humans eat genetically modified foods that are resistant to bacteria or viruses, these antibiotic markers will persist in the body and will make actual antibiotic medications less effective. In fact, ingestion of these foods and regular exposure to antibiotics may contribute to the reduced effectiveness of antibiotic drugs. Strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics are known as superbugs.

What are some other safety issues with GMOs? Well, a more general safety concern that comes with consuming genetically modified foods is allergic reactions. Genetic modification often adds or mixes proteins that were not indigenous to the original animal or plant, which might cause new allergic reactions in the body. In some cases, proteins from organisms that you are allergic to might be added to organisms that you were not originally allergic to. This means your range of food choices will be lessened. Although this is a possible limitation of genetically modified foods, advocates of GMOs argue that they overall boost the nutritional value of foods by making them disease, flood, or frost-resistant, improving crop quality.

Now that you are basically an expert in what GMOs are, next time you happen to see a label with “GMO” on it at the store, you can tell your parents all about the wonders of genetic engineering!