JRC Study Says Biotech Food Safe

The Joint Research Centre, The European Union's scientific and technical research laboratory and an integral part of the European Commission, has released its report on the “Scientific and technical contribution to the development of an overall health strategy in the area of GMOs”. The overall results of the study indicate that:

• There is a comprehensive body of knowledge that already adequately addresses current food safety issues including those dealing with GM products; it is considered by the experts as sufficient to assess the safety of present GM products.
• Developments in biotechnology will require even more sizeable efforts to maintain an adequate capacity to deal with novel products.
• Such R& D efforts need to be firmly inscribed in an international context.
• It is essential that a forum is created where stakeholders meet regularly to share expertise, to identify areas of improvement, to forecast upcoming developments and to anticipate needs for scientific and technical efforts.

Willy De Greef, Secretary General of EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, said “That food made from biotech crops is safe for human and animal consumption is not exactly news. We hope that the European policymakers who have insisted on verifying this fact again will now act in accordance with the findings in the form of more timely and actual approvals of biotech products”.

A copy of the executive summary of the report is downloadable from http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/downloads/jrc_20080910_gmo_study_en.pdf