At the 24 th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 2001, it was decided that the Task Force should expand its work in drafting a Proposed Draft Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Modified Micro-organisms in Food. FAO and WHO agreed to jointly convene a consultation to consider the scientific aspects of the safety assessment of genetically modified micro-organisms (GMMs) in foods in support of this new work.

The expert consultation evaluated and built on the experience gained from previous joint FAO/WHO consultations and assessed whether approaches for assessing the safety of foods and food ingredients derived from genetically modified plants could be applied to GMMs. The consultation examined unique aspects to be considered in the safety assessment of foods produced with the aid of GMMs.

The conclusions of this consultation were used to advance the discussions at the Codex Ad hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology in which the basic ideas of the consultation were incorporated into the text of the Guideline for the conduct of food safety assessment of foods produced using recombinant-DNA micro-organisms (2003) [ 127kb]

Safety assessment of foods derived from genetically modified micro-organisms - Final report (2001)
[ 121kb]

AGNS - Food safety expert roster