The Reference Laboratory Office of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued licenses for establishment of five private labs to evaluate GM (genetically modified) foods, said Dr. Hossein Rastegar, director general of the office on Monday. The Health Ministry is making all efforts to establish labs for rigorous evaluation of GM foods in cooperation with private sector,” IRNA quoted him as saying. All cultivated or imported GM foods should pass health tests before entering the market.
Rastegar said in 2014, around 82% of soybean, 62% of cotton, 30% of corn and 25% of canola crops cultivated around the world were genetically modified. In the same year, 11% of all farmlands across the globe were under cultivation of GM crops.
