Without bureaucracy

Japanese scientists have recognized genetically edited products as safe

Olga Dobrovidova, N+1

An advisory body under the Ministry of Labor and Health of Japan concluded that products obtained using genetic editing technologies can be admitted to the market without additional safety checks in addition to the standard ones for all products. Thus, Japan has followed the example of the United States, where a similar approach operates, notes the journal Science (Gene-edited foods are safe, Japanese panel concludes).

CRISPR editing of plants is convenient because, ideally, it does not leave any extra traces in the genome, except for the necessary mutation (unlike traditional genetic modification using the genes of other organisms). For this reason, the FDA, the main US regulator, for example, recognized that products obtained using CRISPR and other methods (in particular, champignons that do not darken in the air) do not require special regulation, since from their point of view they are indistinguishable from products of traditional breeding. However, the European Court, on the contrary, equated such plants to GMOs.

Now Japanese scientists have recommended that the ministry not conduct additional security checks if foreign genes are not used when editing the genome. "From the point of view of safety, the difference between traditional breeding methods and genetic editing is small," Chairman of the committee Hirohito Sone told the Japanese NHK channel.

At the same time, the recommendations suggest that the regulator should receive sufficient information about the chosen method of genetic editing, target genes and some other details of the process - without this information, additional checks are possible. The Committee did not comment on the mandatory labeling of such products ("traditional" GMOs in Japan need to be labeled and tested for safety).

The position of the Russian authorities and science on this issue remains uncertain. Earlier, the director of the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Alexander Kudryavtsev, spoke out against equating genetically edited organisms with GMOs in Russia, as it was done in the European Union. Speaking at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kudryavtsev noted that such a measure would lead to the lag of Russian science "for a long time, if not forever."

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