France has said that it will not challenge Monsanto’s license to market genetically modified corn in the European Union (EU) after the country’s food safety agency concluded that a study associating the corn to cancers was inconclusive.
Recently, the French government announced that it would ban EU imports of corn produced by Monsanto if the study results hold merit.
However, the French food safety agency ANSES said that the study, which was conducted by the French university of Caen, is insufficiently backed by data. It noted that the number of rats evaluated in the study was too small to be considered scientifically valid.
The study claimed that rats fed on the NK603 corn were at high risk of tumors than the rats that were fed regular corn.
Meanwhile, the French government noted that it would accept ANSES' analysis on the study. However, it plans to initiate a new research on the long-term impact of genetically modified crops on humans and animals.
