Israel: Agricultural Biotechnology Annual
As of October 2018, Israel does not have a policy that restricts the use of imported genetically engineered (GE) commodities or derivative products. The existing regulation states that the sale of GE crops is not permitted without a valid Registration Certificate. To date only GE tobacco has received approval. Israel allows development of GE crops for research purposes. Israeli regulations allow foreign-produced GE products to be imported, sold, and used for the production of food and pharmaceuticals in Israel. In March 2017, Israel decided that genome edited plants resulting only in a deletion of nucleotides and no insertion of foreign DNA are not considered transgenic and therefore are not subject to the GE Seed Regulation. In the upcoming year, the Israeli Ministry of Health (MOH) plans to complete the needed legal work on their drafted regulation for novel foods, which includes foods containing GE components.
