EFSA, the food safety agency for the European Union, definitively rejected the bombshell French report headed by Gilles-Eric Séralini linking genetically modified corn to cancer, saying it failed to meet "acceptable scientific standards."

"Serious defects in the design and methodology of a paper by Seralini et al. mean it does not meet acceptable scientific standards," the European Food Safety Authority said in its statement.

The EU agency said its final assessment took into consideration evaluations carried out in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. "EFSA noted the emergence of a broad European consensus," it said, stating that the six countries too found Seralini's conclusions "were not supported by the data presented in the study."

It listed weaknesses of the French study as "unclear study objectives, the low number of rates used in each treatment group, a lack of detail on the feed and treatment formulation, key information missing on the statistical methods employed."

Séralini and co-authors have refused to show their data, alleging the entire science world and every government outside France is either biased against him or working for Monsanto. 

EU rejects French report linking GM maize to cancer - AFP