Generic bananas

A trial that involves feeding genetically modified bananas to a dozen students at Iowa State University is to go ahead this year.

The study will see students paid up US$900 to eat three bananas, one of which has been genetically altered, and will take place 'sometime this year', The Des Moine Register reported.

The GMO bananas were developed in Australia and contain a gene designed to help people living in Africa make vitamin A.

However, activists have called for the project to be halted, arguing that the students are being asked to consume a product 'of unknown safety', the publication noted.