GMO developers must supply detection methods, reference material and details of the genetic modification as part of authorisation procedure, say detection labs

On 27 June, 12 laboratories across Europe came together to write an open letter to EU policy makers, ahead of the just-cancelled round of trilogue negotiations on the legislation to determine the regulation of New GMOs (NGTs/new genomic techniques) – which were due to start on 30 June.

Initiated by Spanish lab and ENGA (an organisation that advocates for the European non-GMO food and feed industry sectors) member Imegen Agro the letter urges lawmakers to ensure the future NGT legislation requires that laboratories get detection methods, reference material and data on the genetic modification and its location for category 1 NGT plants.

As laboratories, the signatories must be able to detect old and New GMOs to fulfil the requirements of their customers who want to know whether NGTs are present in their value chains.

So far, only the Council is in favour of requiring developers of category 1 NGTs plants to provide information on detection methods; this would apply to 94% of all plants in the development pipelines.  In the letter, the labs urge all trilogue parties to support this initiative during the negotiations.

The full letter and list of signatories can be found here. 

The letter says: "As laboratories active in GMO analysis, we endeavour to always be at the cutting edge of science and technology. In the service of our customers, we monitor which GMOs (including NGTs) are authorised in which countries in order to be able to detect them using analytical methods.

"In recent times, NGTs have become more and more of an issue for our customers and us.

"We are therefore concerned that neither the EU Commission's legislative proposal nor the position adopted by the EU Parliament provides for detection methods for category 1 NGTs. Only the Council makes this demand. After all, category 1 NGTs account for around 94% of all NGTs in the development pipelines.

"We would therefore ask you to include a new passage in the draft law that obliges developers and manufacturers of category 1 NGTs to provide detection methods, reference material and data on the genetic modification and its location as part of the authorisation procedure.

"This would enable us to fulfil the requirements of our customers who want to know whether NGTs are in their value chains. This demand for transparency is shared by all our customers, not just those from the organic or Non-GMO sector.

"If the legislator couldn’t reach an agreement to issue a solution that is essential for large parts of the food industry, we would ask you to enable us to develop our own detection methods. This requires the obligation for developers and manufacturers of category 1 NGTs to disclose reference material and information about the genetic modification, its sequence and its location."

GMWatch and various experts have consistently called for detection methods, genetic information, and reference materials to be provided by all developers of new GMOs, as required under current EU GMO law.

Main source: ENGA

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