The European Food Safety Authority, health and risk assessment advisor to the EU Commission announced on Tuesday that it would not vouch for the safety of a variety of genetically modified maize.

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The Maize, DuPont Pioneer's maize 98140 – engineered to tolerate applications of herbicide, was submitted for licensing in 2008, but EFSA said on Tuesday that it could not make an assessment of the plant's safety as "the applicant failed to supply essential data to allow a full risk assessment to take place."

EFSA experts from the Authority's Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms elaborated that DuPont Pioneer had failed to provide sufficient data about the crop in studies submitted as part of its application for approval in the EU, which in turn prevented the watchdog from ascertaining whether the crop would present a risk to humans or animals.  

As a result of the negligence, EFSA was unable to compare the GM plants (and food or feeds derived from them), with conventional equivalents. The Authority said that the plant chosen as a 'comparator' – the non-modified counterpart used in studies – was not suitable. A spokesperson said, "As with nearly all GMO applications submitted to EFSA (98 percent to date), scientists from the Authority requested additional data from the applicant so GM maize 98140 could be properly assessed. However, the information supplied… again failed to meet the criteria in EFSA guidance documents."

However, EFSA said it was able to complete some assessments; the authority said there was no evidence of new allergies arising from use of the crop, no safety concerns associated with its higher content of certain amino acids and that "the GM maize was unlikely to have any adverse effect on the environment in the context of its intended uses in food and feed."

Therefore, EFSA concluded it "could not complete the risk assessment due to inadequacies in the comparative assessment performed by the applicant and was therefore unable to draw conclusions on [the maize's] safety with respect to potential effects on human and animal health." The decision on whether or not to authorise the maize will be taken by officials in the EU – EFSA is only an advisory body – but the lack of a functional risk assessment does not bode well for Pioneer.