FAO questionnaire results on genetically modified food safety assessment

Abstract

In 2008, the Codex Alimentarius members agreed that it is important for countries to globally share the results of genetically modified (GM) food safety assessment and subsequently the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is hosting an online database entitled FAO GM Foods Platform (http://www.fao.org/gm-platform) to share the relevant data. As of September 2019, only 23 out of 189 Codex members have been able to share the relevant data. In order to understand the challenges countries may be facing in conducting GM food safety assessment, two separate sets of questionnaires were sent to all 189 Codex members in July 2019. Questionnaire A was sent to 166 Codex members who had not shared any GM food safety assessment result on the platform, while questionnaire B was sent to those 23 Codex members who have been actively sharing the GM food safety assessment results on the Platform. A total of 116 Codex members responded between July and September 2019. All responses are recorded as they were received. While the present document is a simple compilation of the responses, a complete analysis of the results was made and integrated in to another FAO publication entitled Reality of GM food safety: Are we effectively evaluating it? Technical Background Paper for the FAO GM Foods Platform Community Meeting 2019.