Webinar on GMO tools for the representativeness of the field trial sites
09 June 2022, 16:00 – 17:30 (CEST)
Summary
EFSA’s Guidance on the agronomic and phenotypic characterisation of genetically modified plants (2015) explains how agronomic and phenotypic data support the risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) plants. A key principle of this Guidance is the representativeness of the field trial sites selected for the collection of agronomic/phenotypic and compositional data. According to this principle, the environmental and agronomic conditions of the field trials should capture sufficient variability within the set of possible receiving environments in which the GM plants can be grown.
The aim of the seventh webinar in this series launched in 2021 was to present the updated GMO tools designed by EFSA to facilitate applicants’ selection of representative field trial sites for GM plant applications for import and processing, and to support EFSA’s GMO Panel in making field trial sites assessments more consistent and transparent.
The speaker provided an in-depth explanation of the general principles related to the selection of field trial sites and how the GMO Panel assesses the representativeness of the selected field trial sites as well as the crop management practices used. The speaker also presented a live demonstration of the GMO tools developed by EFSA.
Around 50 participants attended the webinar representing the private sector, research organisations and national competent authorities from Europe and worldwide.
The webinar ended with a live dedicated Q&A session, during which contributors answered orally the questions submitted by participants.