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  1. Food Ingredients & Packaging

Food from New Plant Varieties

What's New

On February 22, 2024, the FDA issued a guidance for industry that describes how firms can voluntarily engage with the FDA before marketing food from genome-edited plants. The guidance reaffirms that the risk-based approach the FDA has taken for foods derived from new plant varieties also applies to foods from genome-edited plants. In addition, this guidance describes two processes through which they may voluntarily inform the FDA of the steps they have taken to ensure the safety of foods from their genome-edited plant varieties: voluntary premarket consultations and voluntary premarket meetings. These processes can help ease the pathway to market for foods from genome-edited plants, while keeping FDA safeguards in place.

Feed Your Mind Education and Outreach Initiative

Better understand genetically engineered foods (GMOs)

The FDA regulates human and animal foods derived from plants including those that have been developed using genetic engineering or genome editing techniques, commonly referred to as “GMOs” (Genetically Modified Organisms) or as “bioengineered.” All foods regulated by the FDA that are produced, processed, stored, shipped or sold in the United States are held to the same safety standards.

The FDA focuses on the safety and nutritional characteristics of foods and not the processes by which they are produced. This regulatory approach is supported by more than 25 years of experience in this area demonstrating that as a class, foods from genetically engineered plant varieties don’t present different or greater safety concerns than their non-genetically engineered counterparts.

To learn more about the FDA’s plant biotechnology priorities, regulatory guidance, and general information, please visit:



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