Geneticaly modified Food and Feed current situation in EU

1
Geneticaly modified Food and Feed current
situation in EU

• Petr Bene
• Food Safety Department

Prague, 9 October 2009
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Content

• Role of the Food Safety Department
• Legislation
• Authorisation process
• Actual information

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Definition of GM Food and Feed

• Food containing, consisting or produced from
  GMOs
• Feed containing, consisting or produced from
  GMOs

4
Food Safety Department

• Administration of applications
• Participation in SCoFCAH meetings
• Scientific Committee on GM food and feed

5
Legal framework

• by April 2004 Directive 2001/18/EC
• Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the EP and of
  the Council
• Regulation (EC) No 1830/2003 of the EPand of the
  Council

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Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the EP and of
the Council

• valid since April 18, 2004
• covers use of GMOs for food and feed
• sets up centralized authorisation procedure
• sets up labeling requirements and limits for
  adventitious or technically unavoidable presence
  of genetically modified materials in a food or
  feed

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Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the EP and of
the Council

• valid since April 18, 2004
• covers use of GMOs for food and feed
• sets up centralized authorisation procedure
• sets up labeling requirements and limits for
  adventitious or technically unavoidable presence
  of genetically modified materials in a food or
  feed

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Authorisation procedure

• Who participates in Authorisation of
  Applications?
• - European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
• - EU member states (MS)
• - European Commission (EC)

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European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

• GM food and feed should only be authorised for
  placing on the Community market after a
  scientific evaluation of the highest possible
  standard, to be undertaken under the
  responsibility of the European Food Safety
  Authority, of any risks which they present for
  human and animal health and, as the case may be,
  for the environment.
• Point (9), Regulation (EC) No
  1829/2003

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Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal
Welfare

• All MS express their positions during voting
• Qualified majority must be achieved in favour /
  against the draft Commission Decision
• If no qualified majority is achieved, the draft
  is submitted to the Council for decision
• If no decision is adopted by the Council, the
  Commission is authorised to make the decision

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Application according No 1829/2003

• EU member countries
• consultation

National Competent Authority
Comunity Reference Laboratory (CRL)
3 months

• European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
• risk assessment
• final opinion

6 months for validation

• Public
• comments

30 days
6 months

• Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal
  Health
• member countries
• qualified majority (QM)

3 months

• European Commision
• draft decision
• different decision against EFSAs must be
  explained

European Net of GMO laboratories (ENGL)
QM

• method validation

without QM
decision
without QM
Approval / disapproval of Application

• Council of Ministers
• 90 days for decision (SCoFCAH without QM)

decision
3 months
Register of GM food and feed
Official Journal
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Support of GM food and feed current situation
in EU

• Positions of some MS reflect political situation
• X
• The main criterium for EC decision making is the
  result of the scientific risk assessment

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Support of GM food and feed current situation
in EU
Bulgaria Czech Republic
EstoniaFinlandNetherlands Slovakia
UK Spain Sweden
CyprusLuxemburg HungaryPolandAustriaGreece
Malta Slovenia
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Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 of the EP and of
the Council

• valid since 18. April 2004
• covers GMO usage in food and feed
• sets up centralized authorisation procedure
• sets up labeling requirements and limits for
  adventitious or technically unavoidable presence
  of genetically modified materials in a food or
  feed

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Labeling of products with GMOs

• a) the content of GM parts is less than 0,9
• - only in case the presence is adventitious or
  technically unavoidable
• X
• b) wilful added GM parts

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Labeling of foods of animal origin obtained in
animals fed by GM feed?

• NO!
• NO labeling requirements for milk, meat, eggs...
  etc.
• NO traceability requirements applicable

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Regulation (EC) No 1830/2003 of the EP and of
the Council

• harmonized framework for the traceability
• transmission of written information between
  operators
• holding of information (5 years from each
  transaction)
• labeling requirements
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 65/2004
• inspection and control measures

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Any source of GMO unique identifiers?

• development of the unique identifiers according
  to Commission Regulation (EC) No 65/2004
• BioTrack database (OECD)
• http//www2.oecd.org/biotech/byIdentifier.aspx

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Up to date number of applications

• 72 applications presented at 30. 9. 2009
• 60 applications on maize
• applications presented by (only) seven countries
  NL, UK, DE, FR, CZ, BE, DK

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Community register of GM products

• Publicly available on European Commission web
  pages
• http//ec.europa.eu/food/dyna/gm_register/index_en
  .cfm

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Community register of GM products
http//ec.europa.eu/food/dyna/gm_register/index_
en.cfm

• Presently 27 products
• 12x GM maize
• 6x GM cotton
• 3x GM rape
• 2x GM yeast, bacteria
• 3x GM soya
• 1x GM sugar beat

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Products withdrawn from the market

• GM rape hybrids - Ms1xRf1, Ms1xRf2, Topas
  19/2,
• GM maize hybrids - Bt176, GA21xMON810
• http//ec.europa.eu/food/dyna/gm_register/index_en
  .cfm

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Asynchronous release of GM food and feed

• different duration and demandingness of
  authorisation process in EU and third countries
• zero tolerance of presence of non-authorised
  GMOs in feed
• source of problems

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GM maize cultivation current situation in EU

• GM maize is cultivated in
• Spain, Czech republic, Portugal, Slovakia,
  Romania
• National bans on cultivaton
• Germany, Austria, France, Greece, Hungary,
  Lucemburg

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Information on GMO

• Ministry of Agriculture web pages (in CZ only)
• www.mze.cz - section Zemedelská výroba
  category GMO-geneticky modifikované organismy v
  zemedelství
• www.mze.cz - section Potravinárská výroba
  category Bezpecnost potravin Geneticky
  modifikované potraviny a krmiva
• Ministry of Environment web pages
• www.mzp.cz/en - section Environmental Risks
  category GMO

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Thank you for your attention!petr.benes_at_mze.cz