Evaluation of substantial equivalence and potential of allergenic reactions of soybean cultivars tolerant to the glyphosate herbicide The parameters of security evaluation of genetically modified foods are based on the substantial equivalence among varieties and the innocuity of GM vegetal proteins compared with conventional vegetal proteins. The aim of this work was to evaluate the food safety of three genetically modified soybean cultivars to tolerate glyphosate herbicide through substantial equivalence determination and allergenic potential when compared to their respective isogenic parental. Six samples analyzed were three parental soybean (conventional) and the others GM, regarding to the crop of 2004-2005, grown in Goiás state. The chemical composition was performed in triplicate and the content of moisture, minerals, proteins, lipids and fiber were determined. Additional compounds like aminoacids, fatty acids, isoflavons and phytates were analyzed. The potential of allergenic reactions was evaluated in crude protein extracts of three conventional and their corresponding GM cultivars. The same protein extracts were fractionated to obtain 7S and 11S globulins by precipitation and posterior purification on Sepharose 4B bioaffinity column. The 7S glycoprotein was obtained by elution with α-D-mannopyranoside buffer. The resistance to proteolysis was performed by two simulated gastric fluids with pepsin at the proportions 2,5:100 and 13:1 enzyme/substrate. The samples were run by SDS electrophoresis to estimate the resistance to pepsin action according to enzyme concentration and incubation time. Crude protein extracts and hydrolyzed fractions were tested against serum of allergic and non-allergic patients through ELISA immunochemistry essays at concentrations of 1/20 and Western blotting, 1/10. The results of chemical composition of nutrients showed an expected normal dispersion among samples from the same origin, with tendencies for superior levels of proteins from 9 to 16% by GM samples. The analyses of insoluble fibers and isoflavons revealed decreased values at GM samples regarding to the contents on conventional varieties, contrasting with the increase of the phytic acid values in the same cultivars. After the proteolysis, some protein bands remained apparently stable, that correspond to molecular weights around 50 and 18 KDa for crude extracts, 10 KDa for 11S extracts and 50 KDa for 7S extracts. The undigested proteins are similar in both set of samples, the parental isogenic and GM soybeans. Immuno-reactivity of proteins from crude extracts with serum from allergic and non allergic patients were also similar for isogenic and GM cultivars. These results allow us to state that the significant differences observed in the composition of GM samples will neither affect the nutrient levels nor the safety of their consumption as food or feed. As well as there were no observed changes at the potential allergenicity of GM samples regarding to parental isogenic samples by exhibit similar proteolysis profile related...