EU member states rejected a proposal to endorse genetically modified soybean products by agrochemical giant Monsanto. The Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health did not endorse the products at its meeting yesterday.

The decision was reached following an opinion presented by the European Food Safety Authority, which concluded the bean was safe for human and animal consumption and for the environment.

The proposal, which covers MON 87701 x MON 89788 BT soybean, will now go before an appeal committee. Monsanto had been hoping to clear the soybean for sale as food and feed and not for cultivation in the bloc, where only one GM crop, a pest-resistant variety of maize using the same BT toxin as the soybean, is cleared for cultivation as a feed crop.

The European Commission had tabled the proposal, following an application from Monsanto and a favourable scientific opinion delivered by the EFSA.

Opinion over GM technology remains divided in Europe, where the majority of the population view GM with a high degree of scepticism. This week, open air trials of GM wheat being grown at Rothamsted Research Institute have attracted a great degree of controversy.

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