GM mustard gets all-clear in watchdog panel's study

NEW DELHI: A technical agency of the central government has ruled the consumption of genetically modified (GM) mustard "safe for human and animal health", adding that it "does not pose any threat" to biodiversity.

The environment ministry posted the report on its website on Monday, asking for comments from the public before Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) takes the final decision on GM mustard. Comments can be submitted till October 5. The GEAC grants approval for GM products' release into the environment.

Environmentalists and anti-GM groups had been demanding that the ministry make all the documents on the study into GM mustard, including a dossier on bio-safety details, public. If GEAC goes in favour of the commercial release of GM mustard, it will be the first genetically modified food crop to be cleared for cultivation in India.

"From the toxicity and allergenicity studies, it is concluded that GE (genetically engineered) mustard, the parental lines and Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11(DMH-11) does not raise any public health and safety concern for human beings and animals with respect to overall nutritional characteristics," the report states.The agency also found no risk of aggressiveness or any "weediness potential" in DMH-11."Therefore, potential of DMH-11 becoming a weed in mustard fields or in the natural ecosystem is highly unlikely," it adds.

The mustard variety has been developed by a group of Delhiite scientists over the past decade. GEAC had held consultations on DMH-11 with plant biologists, ecologists and environmentalists before giving the task of compiling all evidence to a sub-committee. Earlier, under UPA's tenure, GEAC had cleared GM brinjal -Bt brinjal -for release, but the environment ministry subsequently put a moratorium on its commercialisation amid widespread protest against GM food crops.