Danish Biosafety Clearing House

Experimental releases Contained use Placing on the market

According to the Cartagena Protocol Denmark is obliged to make decisions on field trials and experimental releases available to the public. Furthermore, the environmental and health assessments that are conducted by Danish experts as part of the Danish competent authority’s consideration of an application for an experimental release shall also be made available to the public.

Consequently, it will be possible to find information about approvals and risk assessments concerning Danish decisions on GMOs made after 2003 on this web-site.

An overview of decisions on GMOs for experimental releases made by the Danish authorities before 2003 is already available on this web-site. Furthermore, on request to the Danish Forest and Nature Agency, you can receive a copy of the approval as well as a copy of the risk assessment.

From 1991-1999 Denmark received more than 40 applications for experimental releases of GMOs. An overview of these approvals is provided here.

The approvals differ widely. Some concern a single release only one year in a small area, whereas other approvals allow for several releases on different locations of the same GMO for the same purpose for a number of years. In 1999, 5 approvals resulted in a total of 36.8 hectares planted with GMOs for experimental releases. This hectogram illustrates total hectares used from 1991-2001.

In Denmark deliberate release of genetically modified crops have been carried out with sugarbeets, fodderbeets, rapeseed, potatoes and maize.

Denmark has not approved activities with GMOs for contained use in risk-classes 3 and 4.

A list of products approved for placing on the market of GMOs in the EU can be found here.

More information on placing on the market of genetically modified organisms in the EU can be obtained from the European Commission GMO information homepage or from a memo by the European Commission: "Questions and Answers on regulation of GMOs in the EU".