Additional advice on import of soybean line MON87701 x MON89788

COGEM has advised in 2010 on the import of insect resistant and glyphosate tolerant soybean MON87701 x MON89788. The advice was positive, but an additional remark was made on the difference in quality of a few blots which were present twice in the dossier. COGEM pointed out that the supplied information should be presented in an unambiguous way.

EFSA has reacted on COGEM’s remark in the publication of the EFSA opinion on this soybean line. COGEM has been asked whether the opinion of the EFSA GMO panel gives reason to reconsider her previous advice. COGEM remains of the opinion that import and processing of MON87701 X MON89788 soybean poses a negligible risk to the environment.

EFSA remarked that the quality of the mentioned blots was lost during scanning of the documents, which is necessary to include autographs. COGEM understands these technical difficulties, but stresses that the presentation of the data has to be clear and that a low quality of presented pictures could hamper risk analysis.