By HEATHER BOSCH
KIRO Radio

It could be the first genetically altered meat to end up on your table.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration will look at whether to allow you to eat what the critics are calling "frankenfish."

A Boston company, AquaBounty, has genetically altered Atlantic Salmon.

"Our fish is identical, in every measurable way, to the traditional fish," said the AquaBounty's CEO Ron Stotish.

By adding genes from a Chinook salmon and an eel-like fish called ocean pout, they've created a salmon that grows twice as fast.

Roger Berkowitz, head of the Legal Sea Foods restaurant chain, says that could have benefits.

"If it comes through as a clean product, as a healthy product," says Berkowitz, "this could be one of the potential solutions down the road, for helping to feed the planet."

Food and Drug Administration officials have largely agreed, saying that the salmon, which grows twice as fast as its conventional "sisters," is as safe to eat as the traditional variety. But they have not yet decided whether to approve the request.

But Dartmouth Professor Anne Kapuschinski says the FDA isn't studying all the potential dangers.

"Would these salmon, if they escape into the environment, harm wild fish or local biodiversity? Those questions are really at the cutting edge of ecological science. They're very hard to answer," says Kapuschinski.

Other critics worry the FDA is relying on too little data, because the company is allowed to keep some of its information private.

"We have a lot of concerns," Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch, told KIRO Radio's Dave Ross on Monday.

"What's happening at the FDA is they're kind of taking the company's word for it and they're not doing their own evaluation."

"We don't feel like the FDA's going to have a handle on whether they're being raised in the conditions that the company is promising or not. We're not going to have that oversight because it's not happening here," said Lovera.

Whether the public will have an appetite for it is another matter. Genetic engineering is already widely used for crops, but the government until now has not considered allowing the consumption of modified animals. Although the potential benefits _ and profits _ are huge, many people have qualms about manipulating the genetic code of other living creatures.

Part of a two-day hearing is focusing on labeling of the fish. It is possible that if the modified salmon is approved, consumers would not even know they were eating it. Current FDA regulations require modified foods to be labeled as such only if the food is substantially different from the conventional version, and the agency has said that the modified salmon is essentially the same as the Atlantic salmon.

If approved, the fish could be in grocery stores in two years, the company estimates.

Approval would open the door for a variety of other genetically engineered animals, including a pig that is being developed in Canada or cattle that are resistant to mad cow disease. Each would have to be individually approved by the FDA.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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• Listen: Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch