Govind Tekale
The European Union has adopted new rules for certain plants made with new genomic techniques, or NGTs. But an Instagram video’s claim that Europe has made gene-edited food legal without telling consumers goes too far. The law, Regulation (EU) 2026/1388, creates two regulatory categories, with different authorisation and transparency requirements.
NGTs include techniques that make targeted changes to a plant’s genetic material. Genome editing, including CRISPR-based methods, is among the techniques discussed in the EU’s framework. The rules apply to specified NGT plants and to food and feed made from them; they do not create a blanket approval for every gene-edited crop.
The regulation separates NGT plants into Category 1 and Category 2. A plant in Category 1 must meet defined criteria intended to identify changes that could also occur conventionally or through traditional breeding. Category 2 plants remain subject to an authorisation process and risk assessment requirements under the EU system for genetically modified organisms.
The video is right that consumer labelling differs between the two categories, but wrong to present the result as no transparency. The EU framework provides for public databases and traceability measures. For Category 2 food and feed, labels must identify the product as genetically modified and provide information on the relevant traits. Category 1 plants are recorded in a public database, while labels on their seeds and other reproductive material identify them as Category 1 NGT plants.
The distinction is not simply whether a plant has DNA from another organism. The legal classification depends on the regulation’s criteria and a verification process. Calling all NGT plants “non-GMO” therefore misses how the EU law itself handles the categories and how Category 2 products remain within the GMO regime.
The reel also links gene editing to plants that tolerate weed killers and says these foods will be sprayed with toxins in huge amounts. That conclusion does not follow from the legislation. The rules do not approve a specific herbicide-tolerant crop merely by coming into force. A Category 2 plant requires authorisation, and pesticide approvals are governed by separate EU law.
The Council of the EU says the new framework includes safety, transparency and labelling measures. Claims in the video that gene-edited apples are stripped of minerals, that browning is an apple’s immune system, or that foods are being sprayed with a chemical “used in a war” were not supported by the official regulation or its accompanying EU policy material reviewed for this article.
Will EU shoppers be able to tell whether a food comes from a gene-edited plant? It depends on the category. Category 2 food and feed must carry GMO labelling under the new framework. Category 1 plants are entered in a public database and their seeds or other reproductive material carry Category 1 NGT labelling; the rules do not require the same retail food label for Category 1 products.
The debate over gene editing in agriculture will continue. The useful question for shoppers is more specific than whether Europe has “hidden” all gene-edited food: which regulatory category applies, what information the law requires, and whether a particular crop has completed the required process.
