The European Food Safety Authority’s Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (EFSA GMO Panel) has launched an open consultation on a draft Guidance Document on the agronomic and phenotypic characterisation of genetically modified plants.
The aim of this draft Document is to provide guidance for the agronomic and phenotypic characterisation of GM plants, and will assist applicants in the generation, analysis and interpretation of the agronomic/phenotypic dataset submitted as part of their GM plant applications in the frame of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003.
This initiative was undertaken as part of a self-task activity in order to supplement and specify the EFSA GMO Panel requirements for the agronomic and phenotypic characterisation of GM plants
This draft Document provides guidelines supplementing the general recommendation published in the EFSA GMO Panel guidelines on the risk assessment of food and feed from GM plants[1], the environmental risk assessment of GM plants[2] (EFSA, 2010) and the Implementing Regulation (EU) No 503/2013[3].
In line with EFSA’s policy on openness and transparency and in order for EFSA to receive comments from the scientific community and all stakeholders, EFSA has launched a public consultation on the draft Guidance Document.
Interested parties are invited to submit written comments by 6 November 2014. Please use exclusively the electronic template provided with the documents to submit comments and refer to the line and page numbers. Please note that comments submitted by e-mail or by post cannot be taken into account and that a submission will not be considered if it is:
- submitted after the deadline set out in the call,
- presented in any form other than what is provided for in the instructions and template,
- not related to the contents of the document,
- contains complaints against institutions, personal accusations, irrelevant or offensive statements or material,
- is related to policy which is out of the scope of EFSA's activity.
EFSA will assess all relevant comments from interested parties which are submitted in line with the criteria above. The comments will be further considered by the EFSA GMO Panel and taken into consideration if found to be relevant.
All comments submitted will be published. Comments submitted by individuals in a personal capacity will be presented anonymously. Comments submitted formally on behalf of an organisation will appear with the name of the organisation.
Submit comments (deadline: 6 November 2014)
An updated version of the draft guidance document was published on 8 October 2014. The editorial amendment does not materially affect the contents of the document. To avoid confusion, the previous version has been removed.
