The European Commission adopted a measure on requirements to be fulfilled by companies when submitting applications for the authorisation of new GMOs for food/feed uses. With this Regulation, the Commission seeks to reinforce and improve the authorisation process of GM food and feed and to clarify the requirements for submitting a request. The new rules will apply 20 days following publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

The European Commission adopted a Regulation on reinforced requirements for GM food/feed applications that aims at reinforcing and improving the authorisation process of GM food and feed and to clarify the requirements for submitting a request. This Regulation was already endorsed in a meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCFCAH) on 25 February 2013, following an extensive consultation with member states and interested parties. In October 2011, the Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health also endorsed Commission's proposal on dioxin contamination.

The Commission stressed that the Regulation clarifies inter alia, the protocols to be used by applicants when performing studies, requests to review additional available studies as soon as they become available, and specifies quality assurance requirements of the studies performed on GMOs.

It also includes the obligation for companies to submit 90-day feeding studies on rodents for single GMO events, for which a protocol has been developed by EFSA based on the OECD protocol for chemicals. This draft Regulation foresees a transitional period of 6 months for companies to comply.