A U.S. professional website disclosed that a scientific research institution of the Tufts University had made a human body experiment with the genetically modified (GM) rice, widely referred to as "Golden Rice," in a primary school of Hunan in 2008, according to an article appeared on the Internet on Aug. 31. The article immediately received massive attentions at home and abroad.
People’s Daily learned that a paper entitled "β-Carotene in Golden Rice is as good as β-carotene in oil at providing vitamin A to children" was published on the official website of the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" on Aug. 1.
The paper said that in order to make a comparison of children who obtain vitamin A by respectively having an intake of the "Golden Rice," spinach and β-carotene in oil, the researchers of U.S. Tufts University, Hunan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences jointly conducted a test on six-to-eight-year-old healthy children in a primary school of Hunan province in 2008.
According to the paper, the materials used in the research were mainly the Golden Rice and spinach produced in the United States. These materials were processed, cooked, refrigerated and then transported to the experimental site for pupils to eat.
The paper also said that all the authors had reviewed the original manuscript.
The paper has seven authors. The reporter learned that the first author's name is Tang Guangwen, who is a researcher at Tufts University; the second author's name is Hu Yuming, staff of Hunan CDC; the third author is called Yin Shi’an, researcher of Chinese CDC and the fourth author is Wang Yin, researcher of Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences. The other three authors respectively are named Gerard E Dallal, Michael A Grusak, and Robert M Russell. It is said that the so-called "Golden Rice" is GM rice because it is yellow.
