<P> According to the World Health Organization, "Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can be defined as organisms (i.e. plants, animals or microorganisms) in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and / or natural recombination . The technology is often called' modern biotechnology' or' gene technology', sometimes also' recombinant DNA technology' or' genetic engineering'...Foods produced from or using GM organisms are often referred to as GM foods ." </P> <P> Human - directed genetic manipulation of food began with the domestication of plants and animals through artificial selection at about 10,500 to 10,100 BC . The process of selective breeding, in which organisms with desired traits (and thus with the desired genes) are used to breed the next generation and organisms lacking the trait are not bred, is a precursor to the modern concept of genetic modification (GM). With the discovery of DNA in the early 1900s and various advancements in genetic techniques through the 1970s it became possible to directly alter the DNA and genes within food . </P> <P> The first genetically modified plant was produced in 1983, using an antibiotic - resistant tobacco plant . Genetically modified microbial enzymes were the first application of genetically modified organisms in food production and were approved in 1988 by the US Food and Drug Administration . In the early 1990s, recombinant chymosin was approved for use in several countries . Cheese had typically been made using the enzyme complex rennet that had been extracted from cows' stomach lining . Scientists modified bacteria to produce chymosin, which was also able to clot milk, resulting in cheese curds . </P> <P> The first genetically modified food approved for release was the Flavr Savr tomato in 1994 . Developed by Calgene, it was engineered to have a longer shelf life by inserting an antisense gene that delayed ripening . China was the first country to commercialize a transgenic crop in 1993 with the introduction of virus - resistant tobacco . In 1995, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Potato was approved for cultivation, making it the first pesticide producing crop to be approved in the US . Other genetically modified crops receiving marketing approval in 1995 were: canola with modified oil composition, Bt maize, cotton resistant to the herbicide bromoxynil, Bt cotton, glyphosate - tolerant soybeans, virus - resistant squash, and another delayed ripening tomato . </P>

When was the first genetically modified food created