GM testing for baby food
from genetically modified (GM) foods. New proposals tabled by the
European Commission aim to meet these concerns and propose to
regulate the labelling of food products containing genetically
modified materials. The move would create the need for widespread
testing.
Consumers in Europe are increasingly concerned about risks derived from genetically modified (GM) foods. New proposals tabled by the European Commission aim to meet these concerns and propose to regulate the labelling of food products containing genetically modified materials. The move would create the need for widespread testing.
EUREKA project, a network for European collaboration in research and development, believes that special care is needed with food for infants and as such, the partners in EUREKA project Euroenviron Sampbabyfoodogm, aim to produce a kit for the detection of GM ingredients in baby food.
According to the researchers, the main focus of the project is to develop reliable, quantitative GM screening methods for processed baby foods. The project tested two crops, maize and glycine max, that are at high risk of containing GM ingredients.
"In fact most baby food replacing human milk is composed of ingredients that have a high chance of containing GM material, such as glycine max proteins and maize starch," said Dr Marcello Gatti, development manager of leading partner Neotron.
"Identifying GM material is no easy task," added Gatti. "DNA is generally heavily degraded in processed foods or might be present only in traces, especially in the case of vegetable oils. Therefore, quantitative GM screening of this kind of food poses technical problems."
Roland Schafleitner, researcher and project manager at Austrian partner ARC Seibersdorf, said that the testing methods are based on the detection of genetic sequences present in foods derived from GM plants - particularly maize and soybean products.
"The working steps include quality controlled sampling, DNA-extraction and purification and identification of GM sequences," he said. Accordingly, the researchers said that they have established qualitative and quantitative procedures which have a maximum of reliability and reproducibility.
On completion, the new technique should allow fast, low cost results and the project participants hope that it will be used by a wide range of operators in Europe and beyond.
The project team said this week that they are currently about midway through the project and the basic techniques, such as quality controlled sampling, DNA extraction and amplification, have been established. The second project year will be dedicated mostly to the standardisation of the quantification procedures and is due to complete by June 2003.
