AFSI Newsletter - February 2026 | | Supporting Harmonization of Safety Assessments of Genetically Engineered Food and Feed in South Asia from 2020-2025 | | “Facilitating Trade Through Harmonization of Genetically Engineered Food and Feed Safety Assessment in South Asia” is a project funded by a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS) Emerging Markets Program, which the Agriculture and Food Systems Institute (AFSI) implemented from 2020-2025. The project began in 2020, when AFSI convened an eight-person Expert Working Group (EWG) with representation from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Sri Lanka, all nominated by their competent national authorities but participating in their individual capacities. The EWG’s meetings and discussion sessions initially focused on developing regionally harmonized guidance for the safety assessment of foods derived from modern biotechnology based on Codex Alimentarius guidelines. An EWG report containing a consensus statement and sample application forms was published in 2021, after which AFSI worked with the EWG to formulate a plan to adopt and operationalize this harmonized guidance in each participating country. The project recently concluded with a series of four workshops organized throughout 2025. | | | | |
The EWG report was introduced at the Biotechnology Outreach Conference, which AFSI co-organized in Dhaka with Biotech Consortium India Limited (BCIL) and USDA FAS on June 14-15, 2022. AFSI then conducted a two-day workshop in partnership with Bangladesh’s Department of Environment on September 8-10, 2023, providing risk assessors with in-depth technical information about safety assessments of foods and feeds derived from genetically engineered plants. Until the project’s conclusion, AFSI engaged with the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) and the Ministry of Food to ensure that they had the operational capacity to implement safety assessments in accordance with the consensus approach.
| | Engaging with Regulators in Bhutan | A committee comprised of members from the Bhutan Food and Drug Authority (BFDA), BCIL, and AFSI was constituted to update the country’s guidelines for food safety assessment of genetically engineered plants in 2022. The committee shared the first draft with a broad group of stakeholders during a consultation meeting and workshop AFSI organized with the BFDA and BCIL on October 9-11, 2023 to gather stakeholder feedback, which was used to help refine the draft guidelines. In November 2025, the BFDA officially published the Revised Guidelines on Risk Assessment of Food and Feed Products Derived from Genetically Modified Plants 2025. | | | | | Technical Training in India | The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) adopted the application and risk assessment summary forms developed as appendices to the EWG Report for inclusion in its new regulations for genetically engineered foods in 2022. In collaboration with FSSAI and BCIL, AFSI organized three capacity building workshops in New Delhi on September 5-6, 2023, June 3-4, 2025, and August 20-22, 2025. Workshop participants included members of FSSAI’s Scientific Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms and Foods and technical officers who support regulatory committees at the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC). | | Capacity Building in Sri Lanka | In 2022, AFSI supported the Sri Lankan experts on the EWG to participate in a regional conference organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to share the group’s work. AFSI also collaborated with them to organize online stakeholder engagement sessions in 2023-2024. AFSI, BCIL, and Sri Lanka’s Department of Agriculture and Ministry of Health jointly organized a workshop on September 22-23, 2025 to conclude the project. At the request of the Ministry of Health, AFSI and BCIL conducted a follow-up technical training for regulators focused on Sri Lanka’s Guidelines for GM Food and Feed Safety Assessment on December 11-13, 2025. | | | Thanks to support from the USDA FAS Emerging Markets Program, the Agriculture and Food Systems Institute had the honor and privilege of working to more systematically address regional harmonization in South Asia over the past six years. Towards a Harmonised Approach to Food Safety Assessment of Genetically Engineered Plants in South Asia – Expert Working Group Report will hopefully continue to serve as a resource for the region long after the conclusion of this project. AFSI staff would like to take this opportunity to thank each member of the Expert Working Group listed in the report linked below, along with our collaborators at the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority, Bangladesh’s Department of Environment and Ministry of Food, the Bhutan Food and Drug Authority, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, Biotech Consortium India Limited, and Sri Lanka’s Department of Agriculture and Ministry of Health. | | | | |
