
EFSA guidance for plant materials, cultivation conditions, crop harvest, and storage for comparative compositional analysis
Materials | •GM plant/conventional counterpart/conventional comparators |
- The choice of the non-GM reference should be appropriate for the chosen sites | |
•GM plants carrying specific traits require appropriate treatment comparisons | |
- Herbicide-tolerant GM plants: the GM plants exposed to the intended herbicide; the comparator and the GM plants treated with conventional herbicide management | |
Location | •A minimum of 8 sites |
•At least 6 conventional comparators | |
•Sites chosen to be representative of the range of likely receiving environments where the plant will be grown | |
•Information on important parameters, such as soil type; herbicide use; climatic, cultivation, and environmental conditions; harvest time; and conditions during storage of harvested materials | |
Field trial design | |
•A minimum of 4 replicates at one site (4 blocks) | |
•A minimum of 3 conventional comparators per replicate | |
•In trials with 2 conventional comparators – 6 replicates | |
•In trials with 1 conventional comparator – 8 replicates | |
•Completely randomized block design, balanced incomplete block design | |
Year | •A single year or spread over multiple years |
Practice | •Local farming practices |
Sampling and storage | |
•The raw agricultural commodity such as grain and forage | |
•Sampling according to appropriate quality standards | |
•Information on harvesting time, sample transportation, sample storage conditions |