Food and environmental safety assessment of new plant varieties after the European Court decision: process-triggered or product-based?

Conclusions; It is concluded that unintended side effects can be related to any of the current plant breeding techniques, but the effects and associated frequencies of the mutations cannot be predicted and insufficient data are available to relate them to specific techniques. As a consequence, there is no scientific basis to state that the breeding technique applied should determine the nature and extent of the pre-market safety assessment of any new plant variety. Furthermore, it will not be feasible to analytically distinguish many of the varieties obtained by new plant breeding techniques from conventionally bred varieties. This study shows that only a truly product-based approach, assessing each new plant variety on its own merits in terms of altered characteristics and related hazards, will guarantee the safety of our food supply as well as the environmental safety.
Source: Trends in Food Science and Technology - Category: Food Science Source Type: research