Following an appellate court ruling against the genetic engineering of eggplants, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) insisted yesterday that genetically modified food produced through modern biotechnology are safe.

In FDA Advisory No. 2013-014, FDA acting director Kenneth Hartigan-Go noted that “all food derived from genetically modified (GM) crops in the market have met international food standards and are as safe as and as nutritious as the food derived from conventional crops for direct use as food, feeds and for processing.”