<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Dietary Exposure</b></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">There was no reason to believe that the development of virus-resistant squash plants would result in a change in fresh marketing or processing procedures for squash. Most yellow crookneck squash are consumed as a raw table vegetable or processed for the frozen food market. The fruit of CZW-3 is intended primarily for human consumption and the genetic modification will not result in any change in the consumption pattern for this product. Consequently, the dietary exposure to this product is anticipated to be the same as for other commercially available squash lines.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Nutritional Data</b></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">A compositional analysis conducted on transgenic CZW-3 squash and the non-transformed parental variety revealed only small differences that were within the range of variability normally reported for squash. It was concluded that there were no significant differences in the content of protein, moisture, fat, ash, dietary fibre, carbohydrates, calories, fructose, glucose, sucrose, lactose, maltose, vitamin C, beta-carotene, vitamin A, calcium, iron, and sodium.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Toxicity</b></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">Cucurbitis plants, such as squash, produce alkaloids classified as cucurbitacins, bitter-tasting compounds that discourages feeding by herbivores. It was reported that cucurbitacin B and cucurbitacin E are detectable by taste at sensitivity levels as low as 1&ndash;10 ppb. A standard test in plant breeding for the presence of cucurbitacins involves tasting the product to determine its bitterness. The transgenic squash line CZW-3 and the parent variety were both non-bitter.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">The CMV, WMV2 and ZYMV coat protein sequences were compared to databases of known protein toxins and did not show homologies with known mammalian protein toxins. The history of known safe consumption of these proteins from virus-infected plant products provides additional evidence of lack of toxicity.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Allergenicity</b></p>

<p style="text-align: justify;">The CMV, WMV2 and ZYMV coat proteins do not possess characteristics typical of known protein allergens. There were no regions of homology when the deduced amino acid sequences of these introduced proteins were compared to the amino acid sequences of known protein allergens. The CMV, WMV2 and ZYMV coat proteins are extremely unlikely to be allergens.</p>
