Brussels, Belgium
March 22, 2007
On Tuesday 20 March, the EU
Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health voted in
favour of a 0.9% threshold for the low level adventitious
presence of five GM products that are no longer commercially
available. The threshold applies to the five "first-generation"
GM crops that are no longer sold by Bayer, Monsanto and
Syngenta, as improved products have replaced these. Since the
companies no longer market these crops anywhere in the world,
they are not seeking renewal for EU market approval. However,
the Commission has recognised that "minute traces" of these 5 GM
products "might remain present in food or feed products for a
certain period of time".
EuropaBio has previously
proposed the establishment of adventitious presence thresholds
for such GMOs in food and feed products and is very pleased to
see that this week’s proposal marks a decisive step in the right
direction.
Under European legislation, approvals for these products would
have expired next month. Since the companies are not seeking
further approvals of these products in the EU, the Standing
Committee has proposed to formally "withdraw" the products from
the market. According to standard procedure, today the European
Commission explained these proposals to the European
Parliament’s Environment Committee (“droit de regard”), a final
decision on the proposals is expected to follow within the next
five weeks.
Meanwhile, EuropaBio’s member companies remain fully committed
to developing improved crop varieties using genetic
modification. When approved by the EU’s regulators for placing
on the market these will complement those existing GM crops that
have, since 1998, seen an increasing yearly demand from, and
been grown by, an increasing number farmers in European Member
States.
EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, has 78
direct members operating Worldwide, 12 associate members and 5
bioregions as well as 25 national biotechnology associations
representing some 1800 small and medium sized enterprises
involved in research and development, testing, manufacturing and
distribution of biotechnology products. |
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