LL rice 62 rice as food/feed

LL rice 62 is tolerant to glufosinate based herbicides. The application covered the import of LL62 and its use as food and feed. When the application was filled, LL62 had only been approved for cultivation and as food/feed in the US, but nowhere else in the world. During the assessment of the application by EFSA it was approved as food and/or feed in Australia, Mexico and Japan. In the same time at least four occasions of LL62 contaminations were recorded in rice imports in the EU from the US. (For more detail see LL rice 62).

After the EFSA GMO Panel gave a positive opinion on LL62, Greenpeace alerted the EU Commission of a scientific article about vertical gene flow from GM rice to wild relatives. The EU Commission then asked the GMO Panel for its advice. In its statement the GMO Panel reiterated its earlier assessment that "appropriate management measures should be in place to restrict viable LLRice62 grains being spilled into EU rice growing areas" but that "the post-market environmental monitoring plan provided by the applicant is in line with the intended uses of LLRice62" and that the GMO Panel therefore did not consider the article as new scientific evidence that would invalidate their previous assessement.