French Report Linking GM Corn to Cancer Dismissed by EU

A French scientific report linking genetically modified corn to cancer has been rejected by the EU's food safety agency, EFSA. The latter said it failed to meet "acceptable scientific standards."

"Serious defects in the design and methodology of a paper by Seralini et al. mean it does not meet acceptable scientific standards and there is no need to re-examine previous safety evaluations of genetically modified maize NK603," the European Food Safety Authority said in a statement.

That same conclusion was reached in separate and independent assessments by EFSA and six EU states of the September report from Gilles-Eric Seralini and his team, the statement added.

Seralini's research team at France's University of Caen concluded in its report that rats fed on US agribusiness giant Monsanto's NK603 corn, or exposed to one of the company's weedkillers used with the corn strain, and containing glyphosate, developed tumours.

NK603 was developed by Monsanto to make it resistant to the Monsanto herbicide Roundup, enabling farmers to use the weedkiller just once in the crop's life-cycle, meaning substantial savings.

Seralini and his team said their experiment in GM food was the first to follow rats through their lifespan, as opposed to just 90 days, but many experts questioned its methodology, results and relevance to humans.

Source: AFP