Implementation of the EU-Legislation of Genetically Modified Organisms in the German Food and Feed Industry with specific emphasis on GMO-testing

Abstract

The worldwide acreage of genetically modified (GM) plants is growing year by year and amounted to 90 million hectares in 2005(CLIVE 2005). In contrast to the growing use of GM plants in agriculture, the acceptance of GM food is still low in the European Union (EU) as well as in Germany (FRANK, 2004).Therefore the European Union implemented a series of legal requirements and regulations which are related to R&D, commercial use and labelling of genetically modified organisms (GMO). The food and feed industry is mainly affected from Regulations (EC) No 1829/2003 and 1830/2003. Thus this study analyses the effects of those regulations on the German food and feed industry with special emphasis on GMO-testing regimes. The empirical basis was a comprehensive written survey in 2005 with a total of 1,700 mailed questionnaires. The responding rate was about 20%, thus resulting in 333 filled in questionnaires. The main target of regulations (EC) No 1829/2003 and 1830/2003 is to ensure consumers' freedom of choice between GM and non-GM food. Therefore those regulations require mandatory labelling if food and feed contains, consists or is produced from GMOs in a proportion higher than 0.9% of the food/feed ingredients considered individually. According to our survey the German food and feed industry is already affected by the worldwide increasing use of GMOs and the European GMO legislation. In figure 1 the main strategies of the German food and feed industry are illustrated to fulfil legal requirements of Regulations (EC) No 1829/2003 and 1830/2003.