News

2022-10-04

News on (commercialised) genome-edited organisms

In some countries, organisms generated using New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) are not considered as GMOs. In the European Union, genome-edited (GE) organisms are subject to the rules of the GMO legislation. Therefore, no products obtained by NGTs are authorised for marketing in the EU.

Please note that the information about the commercialisation status is not available for all GE-organisms in EUginius.

In 2023 the company Pairwise announced to commercialise leafy greens that eat like lettuce made from a mild mustard generated using CRISPR/Cas12a (GE-Low pungency mustard). Initially, the leafy greens, marketed as “Conscious™ Greens”, will be shipped to restaurants in the USA before going into wider distribution at stores (see Crop Biotech Update, ISAAA).
The CRISPR-edited Waxy Corn (GE-CRISPR-Cas Waxy Corn) is deregulated in USA (see USDA APHIS), Japan (see Crop Biotech Update, ISAAA), and other countries. Waxy corn is a special maize exclusively containing amylopectin as starch and therefore provides distinct characteristics for food or industry.
In 2022 the FDA determined the intentional genetic alteration (IGA) in the genome-edited heat tolerant cattle (GE-PRLR-SLICK cattle) to be low-risk and had no objections against the marketing of products derived from the two-genome edited cattle and their progeny.
Two CRISPR edited fish (GE-mstn red sea bream, GE-lepr tiger pufferfish) have been approved for sale in Japan in 2021 (see Crop Biotech Update, ISAAA). Both fish were developed to grow larger than conventional fish for an increased meat portion.
Japan approved the commercial sale of the Sicilian Rouge High GABA Tomato in 2021 (GE-high GABA Tomato, see Crop Biotech Update, ISAAA).
In 2019 the first gene-edited food touched the market in the USA (see Crop Biotech Update, ISAAA): high-oleic soybean oil (marketed as CalynoTM, produced from GE-FAD2KO Soybean).