Brussels, 10/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has come up with new software to provide stakeholders with a tool for carrying out complex data analysis as part of the risk assessment of genetically-modified (GM) plants. The software went online on Thursday 9 October. It was developed by the EFSA and Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, and complies with the EFSA guidelines and EU legislation.
Under EU law, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) must undergo a risk assessment before entering the market. An integral part of this scientific review is the evaluation of field trials that provide data for comparative assessment - an approach that compares GM plants with their conventional counterparts.
The EFSA software provides stakeholders (member states' competent authorities and companies wishing to market GMOs that they've developed) with software that enables them with a single click of the mouse to carry out complex data analysis. It can be downloaded free-of-charge from the EFSA website.
Dr Claudia Paoletti, of EFSA's GMO Unit, said: “This software is a valuable working tool for anyone wishing to produce data in line with the recommendations in EFSA guidance. (…) Its use is not obligatory.”
The software conducts a simultaneous analysis of the GM plant compared with its control and non-GM reference varieties (test of difference and test of equivalence respectively, as described in Regulation (EU) 503/2013, introduced to apply EU Regulation 1829/2003 of the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers).
An output-file listing all the significant differences and the respective equivalence categories is generated with a single click. The software is flexible and allows stakeholders to change some settings according to the specific needs of the analysis being performed. It also permits the introduction of different factors depending on the unique environmental conditions of individual field trials.
The EFSA urges stakeholders to make use of the software and send in their feedback in order for it to be finetuned because “this is new software and initial minor problems cannot be fully excluded.” (AN).