( esearch group Forschungsverbund Fruktan...)A slight difference and significant similarities

Discussions concerning genetically modified foodstuffs repeatedly give rise to misgivings that, along with the desired changes, plants could also contain other new, unwanted substances. However, a comprehensive substance comparison between individual plant varieties is costly, as hundreds of substances have to be measured simultaneously. Former Max Planck research group head Oliver Fiehn, who has been working at the University of California in Davis since the beginning of 2005, developed some ingenious methods to do this during his time in Potsdam. These methods, which are known in technical jargon as metabolomics and are both technically and statistically demanding, have now been applied by Fiehen together with colleagues from the University of Wales to the potato varieties listed above. "Our methods can of course be adapted for comparing other food plants," says Fiehn.

The analyses were financed by the British Food Standards Agency. All in all, almost 2,800 potato specimens, cultivated in trial fields at the German Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food, were tested. A team of biologists, chemists and computer scientists from Potsdam and Aberystwyth in Wales took part in the evaluation.