AquaBounty Technologies, the company that hopes to get the modification approved, faced considerable criticism from a number of consumer and scientific advocacy organizations at the hearings.

The genetically altered salmon eggs include a growth hormone gene that cause them to reach full size in about half the time it takes regular salmon to reach the same size.

Ron Stotish, the CEO of AquaBounty Technologies, said after the hearing that the committee misinterpreted much of the data and got confused by the "enormous" amount of data presented to them during the hearing, which lasted more than eight hours.