Genetically Modified Organism Detection

Genetically modified food is constantly entering the food chain due to an increase worldwide in the cultivation of GM crops. These crops, including varieties of maize, soya and rape seed, have been genetically altered by the insertion of ‘foreign’ genes to give some form of benefit, such as pesticide resistance.

Under EU legislation any food that contains, consists of, or contains ingredients produced from these genetically modified organisms (GMOs), must be labelled as such.

Service from Genon Laboratories Limited

We use a DNA based technique, the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to determine the presence or absence of specific genes found in GMOs such as Roundup Ready Soya. This is a qualitative test with a detection limit of 0.1%. The limit of detection can be increased to suit your requirements, for example if you wish the test to only detect GMOs at 0.9% or above to correspond with 'adventitious or technically unavoidable' legislative requirements.

Our testing services range from a GMO screen that will detect 35S promotors and NOS terminators to specific GMO tests that will identify, for example Roundup Ready, BT-176, etc. We provide a free consultancy service whereby we can advise on the test most suitable for you depending on your product, origin, previous test results, expectations of GM status, etc - please call or email for details.

Legislation

Since April 2004 the GM Food and Feed Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003 has been in place. The following information is from the Food Standards Agency website http://www.food.gov.uk/gmfoods/gm_labelling.

This legislation lays down rules to cover all GM food and animal feed, regardless of the presence of any GM material in the final product. This means products such as flour, oils and glucose syrups will have to be labelled as GM if they are from a GM source. Products produced with GM technology (cheese produced with GM enzymes, for example) will not have to be labelled. Products such as meat, milk and eggs from animals fed on GM animal feed will also not need to be labelled.

Deliberate use of GM ingredients at any level must be labelled. However there is no need for small amounts of GM ingredients (below 0.9% for approved GM varieties and 0.5% for unapproved GM varieties that have received a favourable assessment from an EC scientific committee) that are accidentally present in a food to be labelled.

Guidance notes on national regulations, Regulation (EC) 1829/2003 on Genetically Modified (GM) Food and Feed (the 'Food and Feed Regulation'), and those on traceability and labeling, (EC) 1830/2003 on the Traceability and Labelling of GMOs (the 'Traceability and Labelling Regulation'), which will apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can be found at http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/gmguidance.pdf. These EU regulations require labelling limits to refer to the GM content of each individual ingredient of a product, not the product as a whole.

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