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GMO testing—trade, labeling or safety first?

Nature Biotechnology volume 26, pages 858–859 (2008)Cite this article

To the editor:

In a letter of correspondence in the February issue of Nature Biotechnology, Roger Krueger and Bernard LeBuanec1 call for rapid and decisive action to harmonize regulation of low-level presence of unauthorized biotech traits to avoid placing international trade in jeopardy. Analytical methods for detection of biotech traits or genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have largely been developed and found application in response to legislation in the European Union (EU; Brussels)2,3. This legislation requires that products containing authorized (therefore, safe) genetically modified (GM) ingredients above a legal threshold are labeled. Recent incidents have demonstrated that unauthorized and potentially unsafe products may sometimes be found on the market4,5,6. Differences in authorizations between jurisdictions, often referred to as 'asynchronous authorizations', are increasingly likely to result in low-level presence of unauthorized GMOs in exports. Some of the most recent incidents, however, concerned GMOs that had not been authorized by the exporting jurisdiction. The most recent was reported by the US Environmental Protection Agency (Washington, DC, USA) in February and concerned DowAgroscience's (Indianapolis, IN, USA) GM corn 'Event 32', a strain transgenic for Bacillus thuringiensis toxin unapproved for human consumption. Such GMOs may be termed 'unknown' and also raise safety concerns.

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  1. Department of Feed and Food Hygiene, National Veterinary Institute, Ullevaalsveien 68, PO Box 750 Sentrum, Oslo, NO-0106, Norway

    Arne Holst-Jensen

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  1. Arne Holst-Jensen
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Holst-Jensen, A. GMO testing—trade, labeling or safety first?. Nat Biotechnol 26, 858–859 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0808-858

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