Munich

The European Commission last week formally inaugurated a network of laboratories specifically charged with detecting genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods.

Officials hope that the labs will develop common standards for food testing, and will help to win public trust for genetically modified products by implementing new rules to govern the contents of such food.

As the network was launched, the agriculture ministers of the European Union (EU) were reaching agreement on what these regulations should say. But the rules will not be finalized until the European Parliament approves them, probably next year.

Given the public hostility to genetically modified food in Europe, most politicians support the explicit labelling of foods to inform consumers of their content.

The rules approved by the ministers would see food labelled if it comprises more than 0.9% GMOs — or products derived from GMOs — that have been approved by EU regulators. Products containing more than 0.5% GMOs that are thought to be safe, but have not yet been formally approved, would be banned from sale.

The European Network of GMO Laboratories, which employs about 450 people at more than 45 sites in the EU, will support the rules by validating and harmonizing methods for detecting specific GMOs in foods.

In the EU, about 80% of the products on sale, or awaiting approval, that contain GMOs have been validated on “individual initiatives by individual institutes”, says Guy Van den Eede, a scientist at the Joint Research Centre's Institute for Health and Consumer Protection in Ispra, Italy, who chairs the network. “But it is important for everyone that these methods are validated in a consistent way across the EU.” The network expects to validate between five and seven GMO tests next year, he says.

The labs will test only foodstuffs that contain DNA and proteins from genetically modified plants. The final EU regulations may also call for the labelling of highly refined foods made using genetically modified materials, but which no longer contain them. The food industry has called this proposal unworkable.

The biotechnology industry has reacted positively to the laboratory initiative. “Industry has always stated that consistent methods for scientific traceability are necessary,” says Simon Barber, a spokesman for EuropaBio, a group representing European biotechnology firms.

And many commission officials hope that having the labs in place will help to prepare for a lifting of the EU moratorium on new approvals for GMOs, which has been in place since 1998. So far, 18 such organisms have been approved, and 13 more are in the regulatory pipeline, pending the moratorium's end.