Regulation of CRISPR edited food and feed: legislation and future

In the modern era of biotechnology, gene editing technologies are pioneering the engineering of genomes of economically important crops in a way other than transgenics. Genome-edited (GenEd) crops are modified with an intention to precisely alter genes for better growth, product quality, nutrition, and sustainability in plants. Waxy corn, nonbrowning mushrooms, low-nicotine tobacco, herbicide-tolerant soybeans, and corn are all the success stories of genome editing. All countries need to regulate the genome-edited crops before releasing them into the market or environment. There is still a debate on the regulation of GenEd crops in different countries; for example, the United States has excluded GenEd crops from being regulated while the EU has decided to regulate all types of modifications created using GenEd techniques under current genetically modified organism (GMO) regulations of the EU. If the world community remains divided over the regulation of GenEd crops, there is a risk that GenEd crops will soon became part of our food chain with potential risks. Therefore there is a need to develop a clear strategy that can address all the issues associated with GenEd crops to overcome inconsistencies and ambiguities. In this book chapter, we summarize the current regulatory framework for GMOs and how GMOs' regulations would impact GenEd regulations. We discuss how existing regulations are not enough to accommodate GenEd crops. Additionally, we explain the concerns associated with CRISPR-edited products and current GenEd regulations in different countries. Finally, we give a detailed overview of scalable regulation, public concerns, governance issues, and ethical concerns of genome-edited crops.