EU food safety watchdog backs controversial Commission plan on new GMO plants

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a scientific opinion which concludes that certain types of genetically modified plants derived from new genomic techniques (NGTs) can be considered equivalent to conventional plants and have no additional risks. EFSA’s opinion relates to Category 1 of the European Commission’s proposal for a new EU law.

Commenting on the opinion, Greenpeace EU ecosystems campaigner Eva Corral said: “EFSA’s opinion contradicts European national agencies, including ANSES in France, that warn about the potential risks of new GMOs for human health and the environment and call for all new GMOs to be subject to safety checks and monitoring.”

EFSA’s opinion contradicts the conclusions reached by the national environment agencies of Austria (UBA) and Germany (BfN), as well as that reached by ANSES in a second comprehensive report dated 22 January 2024. According to the German and Austrian agencies, 90-94% of new GMO applications would fall in this Category 1 and be fully deregulated.

According to the German agency, new GMO plants that can kill insects by interfering with their RNA will be considered equivalent to conventional plants in the Commission proposal and fall in Category 1 (page 3).

What European national agencies say:

French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES):

"ANSES also endorses the conclusions (...) in favour of a case-by-case assessment of the health and environmental risks (...). The risks identified for plants obtained through site-directed mutagenesis are similar to those already identified for plants obtained through transgenesis, but that exposure to these risks could increase (...) ANSES stresses the importance of post-market monitoring and considers that it should play a greater role." (page 29)

Environment Agency of Austria (UBA) and Workers’ Chamber (AK):

"An intended objective of the proposed new regulation is to ensure a high level of safety for NGT plants, taking into account the precautionary principle. However, this objective is not compatible with the proposed waiver of a comprehensive risk assessment for NGT1 plants (…). A uniform, robust risk assessment of all NGT plants is urgently needed." (page 7)

German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN):

“In the context of NGTs any reference to "naturalness" is misleading and not a proxy for reduced risk. (...) small changes of genetic information (...) might translate into a high-risk potential for the environment and human and animal health.” (page 2)

“RNA interference (RNAi) is already applied for insecticidal purposes in transgenic GMOs and spray applications which must undergo risk assessment. However, [new GMO plants which use RNA interference to kill insects] would be deregulated, despite sharing principally the same mode of action and thus similar risk profiles…” (page 3)

Background information

In the Commission proposal, new GMOs which fall into Category 1 would be exempt from risk assessment before release into the environment and food chain, from post release monitoring to identify any potential adverse effects, and from labelling for consumers. The proposal is currently being discussed by EU governments.

Under existing EU legislation, all GMOs need to be safety tested, monitored and labelled.

The new EFSA opinion was requested by the European Parliament in February 2024, following a report from ANSES in November 2023 that questioned the Commission’s criteria for deciding which new GMOs would fall in Category 1.

GMWatch's analysis of EFSA's opinion will follow soon.


Source: Greenpeace

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