Biotech Updates

Indonesia Seeks Comment on Food Safety Assessment of GM Sugarcane

October 14, 2011

Transgenic sugarcane event NXI-1T is a drought tolerant sugarcane comparable with its conventional counterpart in terms of physical properties, nutritional value, and genetic stability. This GM event contains the EcbetA gene responsible for drought tolerance from Escherichia coli. This transgenic sugarcane was found to be safe for food and consumption based on the report of the food safety assessment of GM products, following the Guidelines for Food Safety Assessment of Genetic Engineering Products (PRG) of the National Agency of Drug and Food Control number HK.00.05.23.3541 Year 2008.

The Summary results of Food Safety Assessment of this transgenic sugarcane (in Bahasa) can be downloaded at http://www.indonesiabch.org/docs/ringkasan-tebu-nxi1t-kp.pdf. The Indonesia Biosafety Clearing House invites the public to comment, input, and submit suggestions about the genetically engineered products (PRG) via email, phone/fax, discussion forums, guest book, Facebook (Indonesia Biosafety Clearing House), or via http://www.indonesiabch.org/komentar/tebu-nxi1t-kp/.

For more information on biotechnology in Indonesia, contact Dewi Suryani of Indonesian Biotechnology Information Center at catleyavanda@gmail.com.