Team:Nagahama/HP/Gold Integrated
Nagahama
Integrated Human Practices
Integrated Pubic Engagement/Dialogue
We explained projects and synthetic biology to people through TV, internet, academic societies etc. As a result, we received some useful feedbacks from the general public. One of the feedbacks raised very important issued. We integrated one of their opinions into the project.
Many people asked how we have thought about risk of eating recombinant organisms.
It turned out that many people feel resistance to eating recombinant organisms as they are. This question gives us the opportunity to think firmly how to sterilize recombinants. This was integrated in safety and demonstration.
Integrated safety
In order to evaluate the feasibility of our products we researched Indian regulations on the handling of genetically engineered micro-organisms. our product has a greater chance to be authorized if there is no more live bacteria in the final form of the dish. We checked this affirmation and found out this regulation: ‘...food stuffs...derived from Living Modified Organisms where the end product is NOT a Living Modified Organism are exempted from mandatory approval of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee.’ Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) Notification no. S. O. 1519(E) dated 23-8- 2007 in the Gazette of India.
We designed cooking methods to sterilize microorganisms. We sterilized microorganisms by boiling our products for 10 to 15 minutes. We made an experiment to assess the presence of yeasts in boiled funazushi. In fact after cooked Funazushi by heating, we confirmed that yeast died by spreading on the medium.This approach will decrease the risk that we eating recombinants. In addition, We chose Vitamin A as nutrient added this time. It is known that β-carotene of absorptivity increases by heating beta carotene. In other words, this sterilization method is considered to be a good method for our progect.
