May 18, 2016

GM potato approved for field trials

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs in the U.K. have approved The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich‘s (TSL) application to conduct field trials of genetically modified potato crops on a designated trial site at the Norwich Research Park between 2016 and 2019.

The field trials are part of TSL’s Potato Partnership Project to develop a Maris Piper potato that is blight and nematode resistant, bruises less and produces less acrylamide when cooked at high temperatures. The project is majority funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council with additional funding from industry partners BioPotatoes and Simplot.

Professor Jonathan Jones, head of TSL’s Potato Partnership Project said:

I am delighted that we have approval for the field trials necessary to test our potato plants in standard field conditions. We will spend the rest of this year making sure we can get the desired traits into Maris Piper plants and plan to conduct field trials from next year onwards.”

For more information on the project, visit The Sainbsury Laboratory website.

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