Chiba, Japan
September 28, 2007
European industry representatives
welcome the decision taken by the Codex ad hoc Task Force on
Foods Derived from Biotechnology to advance a proposal
addressing the risk assessment of low-level presence of biotech
plant materials, found in food or feed, which have been
authorised in one or more countries but not yet in the importing
country. The decision follows negotiations by members of the
Codex ad hoc Task Force meeting this week in Chiba, Japan. The
proposal which will be submitted to the CODEX Commission next
July for approval will be incorporated in the Codex Plant
Guidelines as an annex including information-sharing mechanisms.
This system would not substitute the full food safety
assessments under the Codex Guidelines for products to be
marketed in an importing country. In addition, this work will
not address risk management measures, so countries subsequently
will need to decide when and how to use the guidelines within
the context of their regulatory systems.
We congratulate CODEX as it looks to set the international
standard for low level presence. Low level presence of GM
material in food and feed is recognised to be a reality for
global grain production, grain handling and food handling
systems today under all conditions, including where good
agricultural and manufacturing practices are rigorously applied.
It is an issue that all countries face as part of international
trade. Especially in Europe, failure to address this issue in a
preventive way results in major trade disruptions which could
lead to a dramatic drop of livestock production, job losses and
a significant increase of price for meat products in the coming
years in Europe according to a recent Commission report (1).
"The delays in approval of biotech products in Europe compared
to the rest of the world as well the absence of a science-based
approach to address low level presence is already leading to
trade disruption and seriously impacting the supply of
feedstuffs." said Johan Vanhemelrijck, Secretary General of
EuropaBio - the EU association for bioindustries. He continued,
"Moreover, this unresolved issue that bears no relationship with
safety is having a damaging effect on public confidence towards
biotech products. In light of the Codex decisions, we hope that
the EU will revisit its "zero tolerance" policy towards low
level presence, speed up its approval process and define the
appropriate science-based approach so that European food and
feed supplies are secured",
It is important that this issue be addressed in a globally
consistent way to ensure that all countries have an equal
opportunity to trade food and feed materials freely with one
another.
Currently 10.3 million farmers, across 63 countries are either
growing or experimenting with 57 different GM crops. The vast
majority of these farmers are in the developing world.
(1) EU Policy on Low-Level Presence of GM in Agricultural
Commodities:Issues and Scenarios for European Farm Operators,
Feed and Food Companies and Consumers
(2) Joint Industry Reference Document on low level presence and
impact on EU's livestock
BACKGROUND
A low level presence of genetically modified materials in food
which has been produced according to accepted agricultural and
manufacturing practices is called "adventitious presence."
Due to increasing numbers of biotech plants developed and
authorized for commercialization around the world, products from
biotech plants may be incidentally present at low levels in
shipments between producing and importing countries.
While the agricultural biotechnology industry is committed to
seeking regulatory authorizations in countries with functioning
authorization processes and which import significant amounts of
the crop in which a biotech product has been introduced, those
approvals are not reviewed or obtained simultaneously in all
countries.
As such, and despite the application of good agricultural and
manufacturing practices by operators in the agri-food chain,
more and more countries are going to face the challenge of
low-level presence of biotech plant materials that have been
authorized as safe in one or more countries but not in the
country of import.
Due to the vast infrastructure dedicated to moving grain from
farms to consumers around the world, adventitious presence is
virtually inevitable, even in the most stringent identity
preservation systems.
EuropaBio, the
European Association for Bioindustries, has 85 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.
http://www.europabio.org
The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and
WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such
as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards
Programme. The main purposes of this Programme are protecting
health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the
food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards
work undertaken by international governmental and
non-governmental organizations.
More about the Codex ad hoc Task Force on Foods Derived from
Biotechnology
http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/index_en.jsp |
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