Wageningen – The food and animal feed safety assessment for plant varieties created using cisgenesis will have to remain comparable to the assessment criteria for transgenic varieties. Researchers see no reason to apply different assessment with relation to the regulations on this point. However, it would be better to assess new plant varieties on the basis of their specific new characteristics instead of on the basis of the technology used to create them. These are the most important conclusions from a study by RIKILT, part of Wageningen UR (University and Research centre).
The report “Food and Feed Safety Aspects of Cisgenic Crop Varieties" in which these findings are described was commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. The Ministry wanted to know if cisgenic crops carried risks with regard to food and animal feed safety.
Cisgenesis is a form of genetic transformation in which intra-species genes are introduced. This is in contrast to transgenesis in which genetic material from other species is used. For genetic modification, European regulations are applied to test, among other things, if the products that have been created with the help of genetic modification are safe for people, animals and the environment.
Cisgenesis and transgenesis correspond on essential aspects. As such, undesired side effects can appear by building-in a new genetic element, regardless of the element’s origin. For this reason, RIKILT researchers think that cisgenic and transgenic plant varieties in the area of food and animal feed safety should be assessed in the same way.
The report also states that it would be better to assess new plant varieties on the basis of their specific new characteristics instead of on the basis of the technology used to create them. It is precisely the plant's new characteristics that define its food and animal feed safety and not the applied technology. Cisgenic plants are mostly located in the middle of a gradual scale that runs from simple traditional hybridizations to complex transgenic plants. Needless to say, the picture is not black and white (genetically modified vs non-genetically modified), such as is currently suggested by the classification in regulations.
In the report RIKILT has described in detail the food and feed safety aspects of cisgenesis. The institute wrote the report with national and international experts in molecular biology, plant breeding, risk assessment, immunology and national and European policy. In the meantime, the Lower House has received the report.