§ 22. Joan RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the Royal Society's updated report on GM plants. [46532]
§ Mr. MeacherTo assist the screening of non-GM and GM food, research should continue to develop technologies to define the 'normal' composition of conventional plants.
That the Government and the European Commission should ensure that current regulations and guidelines for infant formulas and follow on foods and GM foods complement each other.
That the current decision-making process for screening conventional and GM foods should be expanded to encompass inhalant as well as food allergies.
The Government are taking the following steps to address these issues.
On the first recommendation, the Food Standards Agency has undertaken a research programme which is looking at new and emerging techniques to define the normal composition of conventional plants and how these techniques can be applied to refine the current safety assessment of GM foods.
On the second recommendation, the FSA shares the Royal Society's view that GM and infant formulae regulations should be complementary. The FSA is pursuing this issue in Europe as these are EU regulations.
And on the third recommendation, the Royal Society acknowledges that, at present there is no evidence that commercially available GM foods cause allergenic responses. The safety assessment for all applications for bringing GM foods on to the market includes a detailed risk assessment with consideration of all aspects of allergenicity including through inhalation.