Friday 3 July 2009

(External) GM food

For a quick and easy guide to GM food, visit eatwell, our consumer advice and information website.

GM and Novel Foods

Genetically modified (GM) foods and other types of novel foods can only be marketed in the European Union (EU) if they have passed a rigorous safety assessment.

Novel foods

A novel food is defined as a food or food ingredient that does not have a significant history of consumption within the EU before 15 May 1997. More information about safety assessments under the (External) Novel Food Regulation (EC) 258/97 can be found at the link below.

Marketing GM foods

GM foods may only be authorised for sale if they are judged not to present a risk to health, not to mislead consumers and not to be of less nutritional value than the foods they are intended to replace. The current procedures for evaluation and authorisation of GM foods are laid down in (External) Regulation (EC) 1829/2003 on GM food and feed .