Book excerpt: "This series of meetings bring together experts working in this field of Science from throughout the world. A major feature of each conference session is an invited review, which outlines the advances that have been made in a particular area since the last meeting. A major factor that was considered at this meeting was the likely impact of plant genetic modification on the nutritional quality of their seeds for human and animal feeding. As an example already a number of legume species and rapeseed have been modified to improve the sulphur amino acid content of their seed and thus their protein quality. Besides the major grain legume species and rapeseed that had been discussed at previous meetings in this series number of crop products, as potential protein sources, for animal feeding, were considered for the first time. These included cottonseed meal, linseed meal, and sunflower seed meal. The potential of some new exotic crops from Mexico was also covered including Mexican species of the genus Lupinus and a Mexican plant from the same family as castor bean, which has a very high oil content but is usually toxic. Work from Cuba compared the nutritional characteristics of soybean with a range of tropical grain legume species, which have received little previous attention. A major change at this meeting was the greater consideration of the effects, both positive, and negative, of the consumption of these seeds for human nutrition. A major review on the development of allergnicity to legume seed in humans is included. There was also consideration of the potential role of antinutritional factors in reducing the growth of various types of tumour cells. The presented papers also suggest that the consumption of legume seed in the diet can potentially reduce serum cholesterol levels. Overall from the 5 conference sessions there are 52 papers. Of these 7 are major invited reviews on the current state of research in this important area for human and animal feeding."