Since there are so many different and unpredictable allergies, it would be difficult and probably uneconomical for the food industry to begin producing “allergen-free” products of all types. Moreover, the biotech industry has not yet demonstrated that they are able to produce GMO-based, allergen-free food products. Despite laboratory research on creating allergen-free, GM crops, no such food crops have been successfully developed. Each allergic person will probably have to continue paying attention to which food he/she cannot eat. There does not necessarily need to be allergen-free, GMO groundnuts on the market for a person who is allergic to groundnuts to find a balanced diet. It is probably better this way since different people could be allergic to different components of the same products (e.g., Maria is allergic to/intolerant of lactose in milk while Anna is allergic to certain milk proteins), which means that it is often not possible to remove the one gene that gives allergies to everyone.

On the contrary, existing GM crops are more likely to cause allergies than conventional non-GMO or organic foods. They often produce unexpected allergies. For instance, in 1999 a survey carried out by York Nutritional Laboratory revealed that allergies to soy increased by 50 percent in the previous year. It is worth noting that this period was the first year in which there was a significant amount of genetically engineered soy sold in the UK. Many studies have shown a direct allergenic effect of GMO food. In 1995, a Brazil nut gene inserted into soy DNA created an allergic reaction in human blood. In 1998, a GM potato caused immune system damage in rats, among other problems. A Bt potato caused abnormal and excessive cell growth in the small intestine of mice. A recent health report claims that Indian farm workers exposed to Bt cotton developed moderate or severe allergic reactions.

Part of the problem is that GMO plants usually contain genes (and therefore produce proteins) that are “borrowed” from another plant. This will make it more difficult for allergic people to identify where the risk stands and to avoid it. For example, will I get a reaction if I am allergic to wheat and I now eat a GMO sunflower that has been transferred a wheat gene? What if I don’t even know that it has been transferred? People may unknowingly consume the allergen with potentially severe consequences. In addition, some GMOs are created by inserting genes from plants or animals that have never entered the food supply chain before. Therefore, the more genetically modified plants become present on the market, the more people will be consuming proteins new to the human diet, which means that cases of new allergic reactions are likely to arise. GMO-induced allergies will therefore likely be difficult to identify because they are totally new (doctors won’t have the tests ready) or because they won’t be consistently present in one commodity, but may be dispersed in several and be sometimes present and sometimes not according to whether the plant is GMO or not and based on the type of genetic modification it has undergone. Studies have also shown cases where subtle, unpredictable differences in the protein structure occurred following gene transfer. Indeed, each cell type expresses a unique repertoire of enzymes capable of modifying protein structure. This means that even if a GMO crop is created by incorporating a gene that is known not to produce allergen proteins in its original organism, the expression of the same gene could cause the production of allergen proteins in the new GMO organism. [1] These differences are so subtle (e.g., differences in glycosylation of the protein) that common gel tests used to test GMOs are not currently able to detect them.

Moreover, the process for creating GMOs is itself hazardous in many aspects and can result in higher exposure to allergens. First, the GM transformation process (insertion and growing cells from tissue culture) can create hundreds of thousands of mutations throughout the genome, as well as altered expressions of perhaps hundreds or thousands of genes. Second, the inserted gene may be mutated or truncated, yielding an unknown protein. Third, GM genes containing bacteria appear to be optimized for gene transfer to gut bacteria, and possibly into human organ DNA, with their own functioning promoter.

By switching off allergen-creating genes, the scientist may be inadvertently influencing a family of genes, as well as the complex metabolic processes that use the gene product as an input. Perhaps in the future, when we understand the language of gene expression, we can safely and predictably manipulate single genes. Now, it is a primitive tool from an infant science, being fed to millions, and released into the environment for long-term self-propagating pollution of the gene pool. Allergies are also still a grey area for medicine as doctors are not able to fully explain the reasons why people become allergic (the allergy is in itself an illogical behavior of our immune system). The proportion of allergic people is growing fast without medical scientists being able to explain the causes of this rise. Many people with allergies still do not know exactly what they are allergic to as they haven’t undergone tests or have only undergone partial testing. Given the current lack of knowledge regarding both allergies and the effects of GMOs on health, it is highly hazardous to engage in the manufacture of GMO-based, “anti-allergy” food. Individual testing and careful eating habits should remain the basis to limit allergy-related risks and more research should be conducted on the causes of the rise of allergy problems in our modern societies.

Hence, organic food, which has been produced without the use of GMOs and synthetic pesticides, is in fact the safest food today.