Food Safety Body Says Works Closely With EU on GMOs
Date: 19-Jun-06
Country: ITALY
The EU's 25 member states are divided over whether to approve the gene-altered products for import and development. Many European consumers are sceptical about GMO products, but the biotech industry says they are safe.
EFSA, EU's leading food safety agency, has been criticised this year by some EU commissioners for ignoring opinions of national authorities on risk assessment of pending new GMO authorisations, and for relying on short-term data provided by the biotech industry.
"We have been working very closely with the member states, particularly with those who have reportedly raised these concerns," EFSA's Director for International and Institutional Relations Christine Majewski told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Parma, where EFSA is based.
"We take into consideration concerns of member states and we'd like to make clear what we do and how we do it," she said.
EFSA's Communications Director Anne-Laure Gassin said EFSA held a conference in May to establish a dialogue on GMOs with EU member states and understand better each other's positions.
Another EFSA official said recently that it was natural that the agency was using short-term data from the industry in its assessments because GMOs were fairly young as a scientific subject and the assessment would become longer-term as science accumulates more material.
EFSA says its main tasks are providing scientific opinions on food and feed safety issues and risk assessment of food safety related issues but it does not carry out food safety controls, inspections or labelling, nor does it make laws.
Turning to bird flu, EFSA officials reiterated the agency's position that so far there has been no direct evidence to suggest that bird flu can be transmitted to people though consumption of food, such as poultry or eggs.
Avian influenza affects mainly birds but has killed 129 people since the deadly H5N1 virus re-emerged in 2003.
But more research was needed to make conclusions about how bird flu can be transmitted to people, EFSA officials added.
