EU Commission Defends Proposal on NGTs Against French Food Safety Agency

The European Commission defended the scientific robustness of the new legislation on new genetic techniques for plants during a hearing before the European Parliament's Environment Committee on April 9, 2024, countering the critical remarks of the French food agency Anses.

The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety openly challenged the main elements of the Commission's 2023 draft legislation on plants edited with New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) in two opinions published in November 2023 and March 2024. The opinions criticized the Commission's criteria for categorizing NGTs, suggesting a case-by-case risk assessment approach.

Klaus Berend from the Commission's general directorate for health emphasized that the draft law is based on scientific research provided by the EU's food safety authority EFSA since 2012, as well as on impact analyses on human and animal health, the environment, and economic and social risks. Berend also cited the letter signed by Nobel Prize winners defending the safety of NGTs.

However, Anses held its ground and its director general Matthieu Schuler explained that "Anses is not against the mechanism for categorizing NGT products, but it is in favor of a solid, applied system with graded assessments, which is not in contradiction with other countries.”

For more details, read the article in Euractiv.