The European Commission has authorised three genetically modified (GM) maize crops for food and animal feed as safe as their conventional counterparts.

The decision follows the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) favourable scientific assessment.

According to the commission, these maize crops have gone through "a comprehensive and stringent assessment procedure", which "ensures a high level of protection of human and animal health, and of the environment".

The commission's decision only allows these GM maize crops to be imported for use in food and animal feed, but not to be cultivated in the EU.

The authorisations are valid for 10 years, and any product produced from these GM maize will be subject to the EU's strict labelling and traceability rules.

The commission said that it had a legal obligation to decide on these authorisations after EU member states did not reach a qualified majority either in favour or against the authorisation.

Food and feed generally originates from plants and animals grown and bred by humans for several thousand years.

Over time, those plants and animals with the most desirable characteristics were chosen for breeding the next generations of food and feed.

This was, for example, the case for plants with an increased resistance to environmental pressures such as diseases or with an increased yield.

These desirable characteristics appeared through naturally occurring variations in the genetic make-up of those plants and animals.

The EU Commission said that, in recent times, it has become possible to modify the genetic make-up of living cells and organisms using techniques of modern biotechnology called gene technology.

The genetic material is modified artificially to give it a new property, for example a plant's resistance to a disease, insect, or drought, a plant's tolerance to a herbicide, improving a food's quality or nutritional value, or increased yield.

Such organisms are called genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Food and feed which contain or consist of such GMOs, or are produced from GMOs, are called genetically modified (GM) food or feed.