The European Commission is under renewed pressure to reverse unjustified bans on GM products following Italy's rejection of GM maize produced by Monsanto, Novartis, AgrEvo, and Pioneer. In the first case of its kind, Italy is challenging the definition of “substantial equivalence” in boycotting GM products. If the Commission fails to act and unblock the regulatory impasse that has dogged the reversal of previous unjustified bans, it could be opening the doors to a new wave of embargoes that could be far more widespread.
The European Commission's Standing Committee on Foodstuffs is currently reviewing Italy's ban of the GM maize. The UK Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes found the products to be substantially equivalent to conventional products between 1995 and 1997 and the Commission, therefore, approved them for EU-wide commercialization without the need for special safety testing. In a first for the EU, the Instituto Superiore di Sanita (Italian National Institute of Health) has challenged this ruling, claiming the products are not substantially equivalent to unengineered products because they contain traces of foreign Bt protein. As a result, the Italian government has banned the products, citing article 12 of the European regulation 258/97 covering novel foods and ingredients. According to article 12, an EU member state may ban a product if it has new reasons to believe the food endangers human health or the environment.
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