Following lengthy public consultations and data review, Health Canada concluded crops developed through gene editing are safe and, in most cases, will not require a pre-market safety assessment.

Gene editing is a technology where scientists alter specific genes in a plant to achieve desired traits. Experts believe it has the potential to reshape plant science, enabling a more rapid development of crop varieties.

With the elimination of the pre-market assessment requirement, crop science companies will no longer be required to conduct costly and time consuming trials to prove a crop is safe for humans and the environment. This update clarifies the guidance for public and private sector researchers working to bring nutritional, environmental and production enhancements to grains and oilseeds with the latest plant breeding techniques.

These changes will go a long way to incentivize and grow Canadian-based research. Plant breeders have been hesitant to work on products that might provide nutritional, environmental or production benefits due to the lack of clarity in regulations, cost and time-consuming regulatory requirements. Health Canada’s new guidance provides plant breeders with increased transparency. They now know which innovations will trigger these regulatory processes and have confidence their work will make it to farmers’ fields.

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