Technical problems dog detection of GMOs in seed

By Tim King

Date: 09/09/04

THE sampling, detection, identification and quantification of GMOs has become a complex political issue, as was shown by the postponement of this week's debate in the European Commission over what accidental presence of GMOs in seed should be tolerated.

The Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has been working on many of the technical problems surrounding sampling and detection. Guy Van den Eede, head of the JRC's biotechnology and GMOs unit based in Ispra, near Turin, is sceptical about some of the claims of anti-GMO campaigners to have detected GMs in certain supermarket products. Such claims are, he says, only meaningful if the sampling has followed methods validated by the JRC, which is the reference laboratory for GM food and feed legislation, assisted by the European network of GMO laboratories.

Van den Eede says there has been considerable technical progress in recent years, for instance in how to extract DNA from samples. But it is not just identification that counts. Being able to quantify the level of GM presence is important because it can have legal implications. EU laws prescribe action on, for instance, traceability and labelling when certain ceilings are passed.

From the scientists' perspective, Van den Eede warns against setting thresholds too low. "The lower you need to go, the more difficult it is to make a declaration about the true content of the material you are looking at," he said. If the statistical variations inherent in the sampling techniques will not permit a scientist to discriminate between 0.1% and 0.15%, then a threshold of 0.2% is hard to meet. Especially since the scientist might be checking for more than one GMO, while the threshold is the cumulated total. The obligations on the seed-shipping industry to carry out tests could be very labour intensive and very costly, he said.

The work of the JRC is aimed at improving techniques so as to cut the costs of sampling, lower statistical deviation and improve detection.

In spite of progress made, there are still technical problems with the detection, identification and quantification of GMOs in food according to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Health and Consumer Protection: Overview: Food and feed saftey http://ec.europa.eu/comm/food/food/biotechnology/gmfood/labelling_en.htm

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