CODEX Paving The Way For Safety Assessment Of Products With GM Low Level Presence

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Also Included In: Water - Air Quality / Agriculture;  Genetics
Article Date: 29 Sep 2007 - 3:00 PDT

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European industry representatives welcome the decision taken by the Codex ad hoc Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology to advance a proposal addressing the risk assessment of low-level presence of biotech plant materials, found in food or feed, which have been authorised in one or more countries but not yet in the importing country. The decision follows negotiations by members of the Codex ad hoc Task Force meeting this week in Chiba, Japan. The proposal which will be submitted to the CODEX Commission next July for approval will be incorporated in the Codex Plant Guidelines as an annex including information-sharing mechanisms.

This system would not substitute the full food safety assessments under the Codex Guidelines for products to be marketed in an importing country. In addition, this work will not address risk management measures, so countries subsequently will need to decide when and how to use the guidelines within the context of their regulatory systems.

We congratulate CODEX as it looks to set the international standard for low level presence. Low level presence of GM material in food and feed is recognised to be a reality for global grain production, grain handling and food handling systems today under all conditions, including where good agricultural and manufacturing practices are rigorously applied. It is an issue that all countries face as part of international trade. Especially in Europe, failure to address this issue in a preventive way results in major trade disruptions which could lead to a dramatic drop of livestock production, job losses and a significant increase of price for meat products in the coming years in Europe according to a recent Commission report (1).

"The delays in approval of biotech products in Europe compared to the rest of the world as well the absence of a science-based approach to address low level presence is already leading to trade disruption and seriously impacting the supply of feedstuffs." said Johan Vanhemelrijck, Secretary General of EuropaBio - the EU association for bioindustries. He continued, "Moreover, this unresolved issue that bears no relationship with safety is having a damaging effect on public confidence towards biotech products. In light of the Codex decisions, we hope that the EU will revisit its "zero tolerance" policy towards low level presence, speed up its approval process and define the appropriate science-based approach so that European food and feed supplies are secured",

It is important that this issue be addressed in a globally consistent way to ensure that all countries have an equal opportunity to trade food and feed materials freely with one another.

Currently 10.3 million farmers, across 63 countries are either growing or experimenting with 57 different GM crops. The vast majority of these farmers are in the developing world.

(1) EU Policy on Low-Level Presence of GM in Agricultural Commodities: Issues and Scenarios for European Farm Operators, Feed and Food Companies and Consumers

(2) Joint Industry Reference Document

A low level presence of genetically modified materials in food which has been produced according to accepted agricultural and manufacturing practices is called "adventitious presence."

Due to increasing numbers of biotech plants developed and authorized for commercialization around the world, products from biotech plants may be incidentally present at low levels in shipments between producing and importing countries.

While the agricultural biotechnology industry is committed to seeking regulatory authorizations in countries with functioning authorization processes and which import significant amounts of the crop in which a biotech product has been introduced, those approvals are not reviewed or obtained simultaneously in all countries.

As such, and despite the application of good agricultural and manufacturing practices by operators in the agri-food chain, more and more countries are going to face the challenge of low-level presence of biotech plant materials that have been authorized as safe in one or more countries but not in the country of import.

Due to the vast infrastructure dedicated to moving grain from farms to consumers around the world, adventitious presence is virtually inevitable, even in the most stringent identity preservation systems.

About EuropaBio

EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, has 85 direct members operating Worldwide, 12 associate members and 5 bioregions as well as 25 national biotechnology associations representing some 1800 small and medium sized enterprises involved in research and development, testing, manufacturing and distribution of biotechnology products. http://www.europabio.org

About Codex

The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

More about the Codex ad hoc Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology see here.

http://www.europabio.org