GM CROP scientists in Japan are endeavouring to take their field to a higher level after inserting a human gene into rice.

The enzyme, CPY2B6 and taken from the human liver, is considered to be good at breaking down chemicals in the human body.

Researchers hope it will do the same to herbicides and pollutants when incorporated in to rice, reports TheTelegraph on Mon (Apr 25).

Where as standard GM crops are modified to be resistant to only one chemical – normally a herbicide – scientists at the National Institute of Agro-biological sciences in Tsukuba, Japan are confident that the latest innovation will offer resistance to as many as 13 different herbicides.

But the news has met with strong criticism from anti-GM campaigners who say this will only serve to scare consumers worried about cannibalism and the idea of scientists playing God.

Sue Mayer of GeneWatch UK told the paper: “I don’t think anyone will want to buy this rice.”

“People have already expressed disgust about using human genes and already feel that their concerns are being ignored by the bio-tech industry. This will just undermine their confidence even more.”

But the paper noted that consumer resistance to GM technology was greater in Europe than any where else in the world.

Richard Meilan who carried out similar research using rabbit genes while at Purdue University, Indiana, said such crops offered great advances and could be used to clean land of industrial pollutants.

Talk of “Frankenstein Foods” was rubbish, he told the paper and added: “I do not have any ethical issue with using human genes to engineer plants.”