In the US, it is legal to eat salmon with altered DNA

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved DNA-modified salmon for consumption. This was reported in a press release on the agency's website.

The product, called AquAdvantage Salmon, is an Atlantic salmon that has been added with a gene for a chinook fish from the salmon family and a promoter for the American eelpout , a bottom-dwelling eel-like fish. Thanks to the DNA modification, the new salmon grows twice as fast as normal fish.

The FDA concluded that genetically modified salmon does not differ in nutritional qualities from its prototype.

According to the FDA, this type of salmon is prohibited from being grown for sale in the United States on the territory of the country. The fish must be raised in special tanks in Canada and Panama.

AquaBounty Technologies has been seeking permission to sell DNA-altered salmon for two decades. Animal rights activists opposed this, calling such salmon "Frankenfish".

Before the FDA's decision on November 18, the eating of animals with altered DNA was completely prohibited in the world. In 2006, the European Commission authorized the use of an anti-clotting drug derived from genetically modified goats, but it is not consumed.