U of M startup Calyxt's new kind of soybean, which produces a healthier soybean oil, was recently highlighted by NPR.
Companies and even university researchers can ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to examine their new products, and the results of these voluntary "consultations" are public. The USDA has a website, for example, where one can browse dozens of agency responses to such inquiries.
Calyxt went through this voluntary process with both the USDA and the FDA, and both agencies gave the company's high-oleic soybean a green light.
"We think it is important to build consumer trust, and also [for] food safety, which is critical, to go through that oversight process," Sahoo says.
Read or hear the full story on NPR.