New varieties of foods and food substances are being produced through modern biotechnological methods (for example, genetic engineering or recombinant DNA methods), whereby scientists introduce one or a few copies of genes into organisms used as sources of food to improve processing, nutritional, or agronomic characteristics. These new methods permit more precise, directed improvements than can be achieved through conventional methods that rely on the random processes of mutagenesis or mating between closely related organisms. Because the genes can be obtained from any organism (plant, animal, or microbe), questions have been raised about the safety and proper labeling of foods and food substances developed by modern biotechnology.