GM vote will lead to secure ingredient supplies, says AIC

The Agricultural Industries Confederation has welcomed the European Commission’s adoption of a long awaited "technical solution" that introduces a 0.1% threshold for the low level presence (LLP) of EU non-authorised GM material in imported feed materials.

AIC’s Feed Sector Head, George Perrott, described the move as a significant step in securing trade in imported feed materials in coming seasons. It is the culmination of years of intensive lobbying by the feed industry and is the outcome of three months scrutiny by the European Parliament.

"As production of GM crops has increased across the world, the European Union’s zero tolerance of GM traits that it has not authorised has put great uncertainty over imported feed supplies," explains Mr Perrott. "Until now, a single soybean could result in a 20,000 tonne cargo being turned away from European ports. That was totally impractical for those shipping the feed ingredients which Europe depends on."

The new Regulation will permit up to 0.1% traces of genetically modified traits, not yet approved by the Commission. This decision also regulates analytical and sampling procedures used to evaluate such traces.

However, Mr Perrott points out that the ’threshold’ only covers GM material authorised for commercialisation in a third country (eg US, Canada, Brazil and Argentina) and for which the EU authorisation procedure has been pending for more than three months and for which a validated detection method is available.