EFSA Study Concludes Maize MON810 Poses No Risk to Humans, Animals, or the Environment

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) assessed the 2018 post‐market environmental monitoring (PMEM) report on maize event MON 810. In their report, EFSA concludes that the evidence reported in the 2018 PMEM report does not invalidate previous EFSA evaluations on the safety of maize MON 810.

EFSA concludes that the cultivation of maize MON 810 during the 2018 growing season does not indicate adverse effects on human and animal health or the environment. However, EFSA believes that several aspects of the insect resistance management and monitoring strategy for maize MON 810 need improvement. EFSA recommends increasing the precision of the monitoring strategy by using more sensitive testing methods and suggests implementing additional measures to ensure that all farmers comply with refuge requirements.

EFSA considers that a robust farmer alert system could help to detect unexpected adverse effects associated with the cultivation of MON 810 varieties and would be a more effective alternative to the current farmer survey system. EFSA recommends that all stakeholders reach an agreement on how farmers growing maize MON 810 could best identify and report unexpected adverse effects from the cultivation of Bt maize varieties. In the meantime, EFSA is of the opinion that farmer surveys should remain in place.

For more details, read the assessment in the EFSA Journal.