Safety Assessment of Foods and Feeds Derived from Genetically Engineered Plants: Online Discussion Session

Background

The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute (AFSI), in collaboration with the Indonesian National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) and the Indonesian Center for Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Research and Development (ICABIOGRAD), supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service, has been providing interactive training on food and feed safety assessment for genetically engineered (GE) plants to Indonesian scientists, regulators, and risk assessors since 2017. This included a multi-phased training on Safety Assessment of Foods and Feeds Derived from GE Plants for technical teams from BPOM and ICABIOGRAD. In 2017, Phase I was held in Bogor, Indonesia and Phase II took place in Wilmington, USA. Phase III was conducted virtually in 2020 as an interactive online training course, with ten video-based modules followed by a combination of graded and self-assessments. The three phases combine to provide in-depth training on the concepts in GE food and feed safety assessment, including evaluation of stacked traits, in the form of lectures, case studies, exercises, laboratory demonstrations, and online training.

Overview

As the final activity for Phase III, AFSI organized an online discussion session on December 8, 2020 that provided students with an opportunity for a Q&A with technical experts and AFSI staff who were involved in designing the content for the training program. This event included a review of the online training course materials by AFSI staff, followed by a discussion with technical experts.