Foodlaw-Reading Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
..... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....

Food Law News - EU - 2015

European Commission - Press release, 24 April 2015

GMOs - Commission authorises 17 GMOs for food/feed uses and 2 GM carnations

The Commission today adopted 10 new authorisations for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) for food/feed use, 7 renewals of existing authorisations and also the authorisation for the importation of 2 GMO cut flowers (not for food or feed). These GMOs had gone through a full authorisation procedure, including a favourable scientific assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The authorisation decisions do not cover cultivation.

The GMOs approved today had received "no opinion" votes from Member States in both the Standing and Appeal Committees, since no qualified majority either in favour or against was expressed. The Commission adopted these pending decisions, as required by the current GMO legal framework.Authorisations were not granted during the past months whilst a review of the decision making procedure on GMO authorisations was ongoing. The outcome of that review was presented on April 22 with the adoption of a communication reviewing the process for the authorisation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and a legislative proposal in order to amend Regulation 1829/2003 on food and feed (IP/15/4777, MEMO/15/4778 and MEMO/15/4779). Until the new proposal will be adopted by Parliament and Council, the authorisations process has to be based on the current applicable legislative framework.

All the GMOs approved today have been proved to be safe before their placing on the EU market. The risk assessment has been done by EFSA in collaboration with Member States for each individual GMO to be put on the market. The GM food and feed authorisations will be added to the existing list of 58 GMOs authorised in the EU for food and feed uses (covering maize, cotton, soybean, oilseed rape, sugar beet).

The authorisations are valid for 10 years, and any products produced from these GMOs will be subject to the EU's labelling and traceability rules.

The GMO's adopted today are as follows:

• 10 new authorisations: MON 87460 maize, MON 87705 soybean, MON 87708 soybean, MON 87769 soybean, 305423 soybean, BPS-CV127-9 soybean, MON 88302, oilseed rape, T304-40 cotton, MON 88913 cotton, LLCotton25xGHB614 cotton
• 7 renewals: T25 maize, NK603 maize, GT73 oilseed rape, MON 531 x MON 1445 cotton, MON 15985 cotton; MON 531 cotton and MON 1445 cotton
• 2 GM cut flowers (carnations line IFD-25958-3 and line IFD-26407-2).

The list of authorised GM plants and the precise scope of their authorisation is available in the EU register of GM food and feed, which can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/food/dyna/gm_register/index_en.cfm

For more information: http://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/gmo/index_en.htm