Sugarcoating the biotech pill

After saturated fat, trans fat is the new 8216;8216;bad fat8217;8217; being held responsible for obesity, heart problems and diabetes, explained scientists and industry experts at the conference, even as hundreds of protestors laid siege to the Moscone centre where 18,000 biotech experts were hardselling fruits of biotechnology.

Trans fat was once seen as a necessarily evil in the process of cutting down saturated fats. Once that was done, unsaturated fats could not withstand baking or frying, which is why a process called hydrogenation was undertaken to reduce the level of unsaturated fat to make the oil more stable. The result was trans fat, also responsible for the characteristic taste, texture and shelf life of packaged junk food.

It was only in the late 8217;80s that scientists started discovering that trans fat8212;earlier hailed as a substitute for saturated fat8212;raised bad LDL cholesterol and decresased the good HDL cholesterol. All conventional methods to cut down this trans fat have failed. The only answer, the industry says, is biotechnology8212;alter the soya, canola and sunflower seeds in such a way that they no longer have this trans fat.

Americans consume 8 billion pounds of trans fats a year, much of it from processed foods, and it is seen to be responsible for 20,000 deaths annually.

While the National Academies of Science in the US advises that the people eat as little trans fat as possible in their daily diet, it is unable to suggest 8216;8216;the safe limit8217;8217;. The US dietery guidelines subscribes to this view, and beginning January 2005, all labels in packaged food in the US are to specify the trans fat value right under the column that gives the saturated fat value. Till then, it is a race against time for the biotech industry.

Fritolay has already announced they are doing so for their chips packets, so have Proctor and Gamble, Kraft for their Oreo biscuits. Once it is on the label, the companies will ensure they can write 8216;No trans fat8217;. This has an implication for India too8212;since the only genetically modified product allowed by us is Bt Cotton, these packaged food will not be allowed into India.

8216;8216;The Indian population is also prone to heart diseases and diabetes and I think the companies will make an effort to introduce these in India too,8217;8217; says Ganesh Kishore, head of biotechnology in DuPont. 8216;8216;Worldwide, the stress is not just providing food but nutritionally better food,8217;8217; he adds and the biotech industry was merely responding to 8216;8216;the demands of the consumers8217;8217;.

Robert Fraley, executive vice-president and chief technology officer for Monsanto, and David Dzisiak, global business leader for oils and oilseeds with Dow Agro Sciences, discussed how eventually, soyabeans grown in the US will have dramatically less trans fat. Dow has come out with a new canola oil, Natreon, that is not genetaically modified but 8216;8216;uses tools of biotechnology8217;8217; which reduce trans fat by 85 per cent.

The companies are not stopping here8212;they are working at diets fortified with omega-3 fatty acids, normally found in fish oil, that can reduce the risk of heart attack by 50 per cent. The are splicing genes from an algae that is normally eaten by fish and is responsible for this healthy Omega 3. This gene will be spliced into soyabeans to help generate a stable and more palatable supply of this nutrient.