ifrik | research on genetic engineering

contamination

German contamination distances: 300 m, 150 ... or less if your neighbours talks you into it

9 August 2007

After years of arguments the German government finally decided on changes on a number of regulations for GM crops. What's hailed as an improvement in fact makes matters worse and some of the pressing issues have still not been tackled. What made it to the main TV news was that GM maize now should be planted 150 m away from conventional maize, or 300 m from organic maize. Or less if the GM farmer makes an agreement with his neighbours. It doesn't take much imagination to picture the pressure that can mount in a village if one farmer wants to grow GM maize... But it also means that their neighbours will have to label any kind of GM contamination, even below 0.9% because agreeing to a lesser safety distance clearly could technically been avoided.

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No favours for the US: Herculex RW not approved for import

29 June 2007

Bt maize, contamination

Only less than two months after Greenpeace had detected illegal contamination of maize pellets in the harbour of Rotterdam, the EU commission tried to solve the problem by approving the maize Herculex RW (59122) as feed and food. The Standing Committee however did not agree with that on Monday.
In April, illegal contamination was detected in US maize in the harbours of Rotterdam and Dubin: maize feed was contaminated with the GM maize Herculex RW (DAS-59122) that is not approved in the EU. Contamination with this maize is therefore forbidden - no matter how big that contamination is.

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LL601-Kontamination: Glück im Unglück?

1 November 2006

article, contamination, LL601, rice

A. Lorch, GID 178 Oktober 2006

Gentechnisch veränderter Reis ist in den Handel gelangt, obgleich er weder in den Vereinigten Staaten noch in der Europäischen Union eine Zulassung besitzt. Wie es dazu kommen konnte, ist derzeit noch nicht geklärt.

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"Adventitious" - When do companies have to label GM contamination below 0.9%?

2 November 2005

contamination

Food in the EU doesn't have to be labeled as containing GM ingredients if it contains material of less than 0.9% content as long as it is "adventitious" or "technically unavoidable". But companies have to label it, if they have done nothing to avoid the contamination. The clause "adventitious" or "technically unavoidable" in the EU Regulation 1829/2003 on GM labelling is not a simple threshold.

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GM Contamination Register

30 August 2005

contamination

Since their introduction in 1996, GM crops have contaminated food, feed, seed and the environment right across the globe. Over 60 have been documented in 27 countries on 5 continents. In June 2005, GeneWatch and Greenpeace launched the GM Contamination Registerto record them.

It includes all known incidents of contamination arising from the intentional or accidental release of GMOs. as well as illegal plantings of GM crops and the negative agricultural side-effects that have been reported. There may however be others that are, as yet, undetected.
The latest incidents in this list is New Zealand's investigation into GM contamination of maize which concludes that this was caused by imported GM soybean, residues of which were left in the storage facilities also used for the maize.

www.gmcontaminationregister.org

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glossary

contamination register

updated: 15 April 2008

for an overview over contamination events check www.gmcontaminationregister.org

Adventitous presence

updated: 15 April 2008

Regulation 1829/2003
Section 2 Labelling, Article 12:
"1. This Section shall apply to foods which are to be delivered as such to the final consumer or mass caterers in the Community and which:
(a) contain or consist of GMOs; or
(b) are produced from or contain ingredients produced from GMOs.
2. This Section shall not apply to foods containing material which contains, consists of or is produced from GMOs in a proportion no higher than 0,9 per cent of the food ingredients considered individually or food consisting of a single ingredient, provided that this presence is adventitious or technically unavoidable.
3. In order to establish that the presence of this material is adventitious or technically unavoidable, operators must be in a position to supply evidence to satisfy the competent authorities that they have taken appropriate steps to avoid the presence of such material."

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