Government approves commercial use of Golden Rice

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has finally approved the controversial Golden Rice after years of rigorous biosafety assessment.

The Department of Agriculture, through its attached agency the Bureau of Plant Industry, said Golden Rice has been found to be “as safe as conventional rice.”

The DA issued the biosafety permit, which detailed the approval of the Golden Rice for direct use as food, feed or for processing (FFP).

In February 2017, PhilRice applied for a biosafety permit to conduct field trials following the requirements of a joint department circular issued in 2016.

PhilRice executive director John de Leon said the regulatory decision would bring forward an accessible solution to the country’s problem on Vitamin A deficiency that is affecting many pre-school children and pregnant women.

Despite the success of public health interventions like oral supplementation, complementary feeding and nutrition education, Vitamin A deficiency among children aged six months to five years old increased from 15.2 percent in 2008 to 20.4 percent in 2013.

The beta-carotene content of Golden Rice aims to provide 30 to 50 percent of the estimated average requirement of Vitamin A for pregnant women and young children.

The Golden Rice is intended as a complementary, food-based solution to existing nutritional interventions, such as diet diversification and oral supplementation.

IRRI director general Matthew Morrell said it would partner with PhilRice to develop the nutrition-sensitive agricultural solution to address hidden hunger.

“The Philippines has long recognized the potential to harness biotechnology to help address food and nutrition security, environmental safety, as well as improve the livelihoods of farmers,” he said.

The FFP approval is the latest regulatory milestone in the journey to develop and deploy Golden Rice in the Philippines. With this approval, PhilRice and IRRI will now proceed with sensory evaluations.

To complete the Philippine biosafety regulatory process, Golden Rice will require approval for commercial propagation before it can be made available to the public.

This follows from the field trials harvested in Muñoz in Nueva Ecija and San Mateo in Isabela in September and October 2019.

The Philippines now joins a select group of countries that have affirmed the safety of Golden Rice. In 2018, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Health Canada and the United States Food and Drug Administration published positive food safety assessments for Golden Rice.