FAQs - Subcommittee for Release of GMOs and GMO-Related Products

The GMAC Release Subcommittee has been tasked specifically to: To draft revisions of the Singapore Guidelines on the Release of Agriculture-Related GMOs, when necessary, for GMAC’s approval;

- To designate the various agencies (ie. SFA, NEA, MOH, NParks) to implement the Guidelines using
  their existing legislation;
- To assess the risks associated with the release of GMOs and GMO-related products or recommend to GMAC
  to appoint an expert panel if necessary;
- To make recommendations to GMAC on the approval for release of GMOs and GMO-related products;

The Release Subcommittee scientifically reviews applications involving the intentional release of GMOs into the environment for purpose of planting, commercial sale or clinical trials and provides its findings to relevant authorities for their considerations for the (GMO) final approval.

For applications on the release of GMO-related health product, kindly submit a dossier following the EU guidelines for Environmental Risk Assessment to the GMAC for review. The checklist of items required for Environmental Risk assesment can be found here. For applications on the release of agriculture-related GMOs, kindly refer to Appendix 1 Questionnaire for Risk Assessment of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) Related to Agriculture of the Singapore Guidelines on the Release of Agriculture-Related GMOs. The Guidelines can be found here.

The time taken to evaluate each application differs from case to case. This is mainly due to the varying number of rounds of clarifications required by the Subcommittee regarding each individual application.

The number of rounds of clarifications required differs from case to case. On average, the number of clarifications required for individual assessment ranges from one to three.