GM gene-edited tomatoes to be fed to humans (but no, it's not a food safety study)

According to an article on BBC News, the Quadram Institute in Norwich is recruiting 76 people with low vitamin D to take part in the ViTaL-D Study, where some participants will eat soup containing tomatoes that have been genetically engineered via gene editing to contain a vitamin D precursor. When the fruit is placed under ultraviolet light, vitamin D forms.

Pat Thomas from Beyond GM was quoted by BBC News as saying there should be "an abundance of precaution" when it comes to GM foods that people have not eaten before.

While the BBC headlines its article on the GM vitamin D tomato study "Trial uses tomatoes to test impact of gene-edited food on humans" and touts it as probably "the first human trial in the UK", we should be under no illusions. This 21-day study is not a food safety study and it won't "test the impact of a gene-edited food on humans", in the sense of monitoring the health of GM tomato-consuming people over the medium or longer term.

Instead, it will be an efficacy study, where...