On the 17th of June, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) organised a workshop on the allergenicity assessment of genetically modified plants, gathering over 80 international experts. Following the opening plenary session, the meeting broke out into three small discussion groups on specific topics: non-IgE-mediated immune adverse reactions to food, in vitro digestibility tests for allergenicity assessment and endogenous allergenicity. EFA was represented by Senior Policy Advisor Roberta Savli that provided the patients' perspective on the need to have clear labelling of allergens to improve quality of life and sometimes even save life and avoid anaphylactic reactions.
It was underlined that, within the 14 allergens that need to be labelled according to the EU regulation on the provision of food information to consumers, currently only soybean could be genetically modified. The discussions then focused on whether these modified plants are more allergenic than the natural ones.
For more information about the workshop, please visit EFSA’s website.