Martin Ferris
Question:474 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Health and Children if imports of sweetcorn from the United States have ever been tested for GM content; and if so will he provide details of the results. [11800/04]
View answerTuesday, 27 April 2004
Questions (415, 416)
Written answers
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI, is the competent authority in Ireland for the enforcement of EU legislation regarding the genetic modification of foodstuffs. The FSAI carries out checks on the marketplace for compliance with the GM legislation. I am advised that the FSAI is satisfied that, based on current scientific opinion, GM products authorised within the EU are safe for human consumption. The FSAI undertakes surveys to check for compliance with regulations on the labelling of genetically modified food. The surveys, which form part of the EU co-ordinated programme for the official control of foodstuffs, examine a wide range of both soya and maize containing foods.
The results show that some of the samples tested contained GM ingredients authorised for food use within the EU, although none of the samples which were found by the FSAI to contain GM material contained greater than the 1% threshold allowed under EU legislation. This threshold is further reduced to 0.9% in the most recent regulations. Under EU Regulations, food or ingredients that meet the threshold for GM content do not require GM-specific labelling if the operator can show that the food or ingredients were from a non-GM source, which would indicate that the GM content was due to technically unavoidable contamination. None of the samples found by the FSAI to contain GM material contained greater than the threshold.
I have been informed that sweetcorn tested as part of these surveys has been GM free. The FSAI has indicated that it is planned to include sweetcorn as part of its 2004 survey.
Martin Ferris
Question:475 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Health and Children the testing procedures that will be carried out to evaluate the level of GM content of food products following the coming into force of the new EU regulation on labelling on 18 April 2004. [11801/04]
View answerThe Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI, is the competent authority in Ireland for the enforcement of EU legislation regarding the genetic modification of foodstuffs. The FSAI carries out checks on the marketplace for compliance with the GM legislation.
The FSAI has carried out a number of surveys of the food supply chain in recent years and has employed both state laboratories as well as private laboratories to carry out testing of the genetic material, DNA, in a range of foods using a technique called polymerase chain reaction or PCR. This is a rapidly expanding and highly sensitive technique employed for a range of other uses, including academic research and forensic science. This technology can be used to test for the presence, and sometimes the amount, of a GMO present in a food relative to its non-GMO counterpart.
The EU, under the auspices of the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, has undertaken to standardise how GMOs and derived food and feed are tested using PCR and validation of a number of tests is already well advanced. New legislation has just come into force that also stipulates what applicants must provide by way of material and information to enable testing for specific GMOs before they will be authorised for marketing.