Identification and quantitation of genetically modified (GM) ingredients in maize, rice, soybean and wheat-containing retail foods and feeds in Turkey

Abstract

The cultivation area and diversity of genetically modified (GM) crop varieties worldwide is increasing rapidly. Taking Turkey as an example of a country with tight restrictions on the import and use of GM crops but limited resources for product monitoring, we developed a cost-effective 3-tier screening protocol, and tested 110 retail food products and 13 animal feeds available in 2016-2017 for GM ingredients. No evidence was found for the presence of GM wheat or rice in the foodstuffs tested; however, 6 feeds and 3 food products containing soybean and/or maize were positive for one or more GM elements. GM events present in positive samples were identified by event-specific PCR and quantified by real-time PCR. We also compared the results with previous surveys in Turkey.Overall, we observed consistent use of GM animal feeds; however, these were not labelled as GM at the point of sale. Occasional food products also tested positive for GM ingredients, usually at low concentrations that could be attributed to accidental contamination.

Comparison of Modified DNA Isolation Methods for the Detection of GMO in Processed Foods

“…Artuvan and Aksay, in which GMO content was screened in baby formulas and baby continue milk offered for sale in markets in Turkey, p35S, tNOS and pFMV transgenic contents were not found [42]. In other studies, on GMOs in food products in Turkey, no GM content was found in terms of soy and corn content [10,11,31,45]. It is recommended to examine the low amount of GMOs determined by qualitative and quantitative studies by sequence analysis in the next step.…”

“…Therefore, the GMO content of the corn sample may be higher than in the other processed food samples studied. It is recommended to perform quantitative analyses to determine the limit threshold value determined by the relevant laws in GMO analysis studies conducted with the traditional PCR method and sequence analyzes for the result [36,45].…”

Searching of the Genetically Modified Organisms and Their Products’ Status and Evaluation of Food Safety and Regulations in Turkey in terms of the Forensic Sciences

“…The analyses were found to be positive in two feeds and other samples were reported as negative. Positive results were found in the feed samples in different studies in Turkey (Meric et al, 2014;Erkan & Dastan, 2017;Avsar, Sadeghi, Turkec, & Lucas, 2020). Turkey became a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Cartagena Protocol.…”

Development and utilization of analytical methods for rapid GM detection in processed food products: a case study for regulatory requirement

“…Few reports on the utilization of GM diagnostics for GMO testing of food products from the markets in Brazil, Georgia and Turkey are available (Avsar et al 2020;Cardarelli et al 2005;Datukishvili et al 2015). Cardarelli et al (2005) checked the GM status of maize and soybean derived food products including raw soybeans, dehydrated and canned soups, powdered soy milk, cookies, french fries, sausages, products of maize meal, canned corn, soy beverages, soy protein, pasta, and pet-food, procured from the Brazilian market using PCR assays for Roundup Ready soybean, Bt176 and MON810 events of GM maize, and some of the soybean derived products were found GM.…”

“…Datukishvili et al (2015) utilized multiplex PCR simultaneously targeting Cauli ower Mosaic Virus 35S promoter (P-35S), nopaline synthase terminator (T-nos), 5-enolppyruvylshikimate-phosphate synthase (cp4-epsps), for GM detection in soy, and targeting P-35S and cry1Ab for GM detection in maize food products. Avsar et al (2020) checked the presence or absence of GM ingredients in 123 food and feed samples derived from maize, rice, soybean and wheat from retail shops in Turkey. The GM status of samples was checked by the multiplex real-time PCR simultaneously detecting P-35S, T-nos, P-FMV and bar gene, None of the wheat or rice products were found GM positive whereas, several maize and soybean derived samples were found positive for GM elements tested.…”