07/07/10

Demand growing for accurate GM testing

Countries worldwide are calling for reliable and comparable GMO testing Copyright: Flickr/DEMOSH

By: T.V. Padma

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Demand growing for accurate GM testing</h1>
<h4>By: T.V. Padma</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p>[TURIN, ITALY] Science is struggling to keep up with the increasing worldwide demand for rigorous tests for genetically modified organisms, the fourth EuroScience Open Forum, in Turin, heard yesterday (6 July).</p>
<p>Testing for the presence of very low levels of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in foods is posing several challenges, from choosing appropriate sampling procedures and detection methods to resolving uncertainties in the interpretation of results, especially those close to permitted levels, experts said.</p>
<p>The development and cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops is on the rise with about 125 million hectares planted in 25 countries in 2008. But approval processes for marketing GM products vary from country to country, which affects the international trade in foods.</p>
<p>"There are difficulties in coming up with a detection method that is applicable across all laboratories," said Emilio Rodrigues Cerezo, a researcher at the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Spain. This means that although some countries, such as those in the European Union (EU), have banned the import of GMOs, small levels could still reach them from countries with more relaxed testing methods.</p>
<p>Countries worldwide are increasingly calling for reliable and comparable testing and approval processes, which are difficult to achieve, experts said at the meeting.</p>
<p>"The theory of GMO testing has been developed but its actual practice is proving to be challenging," Guy van den Eede, a researcher at the EU’s Joint Research Council, told <em>SciDev.Net</em>.</p>
<p>Claudia Paoletti, a senior scientist at the GMO unit of the European Food Safety Authority, said that more research is needed on the genetic variations that can occur within samples of specific GM products, which requires complicated sampling protocols which themselves create various sampling errors.</p>
<p>"It is not only important to know how many samples are being tested but also how they have been taken," Paoletti said. "We need to find the balance between good science and time and financial constraints."</p>
<p>Arne Holst-Jensen, a researcher at the National Veterinary Institute, Norway, said that GMO testing can detect the modified genetic material, the protein the new gene codes for, or how that protein is expressed as a specific trait.</p>
<p>But even if a gene is present it does not always produce the target protein — or it can produce varying amounts of the protein, which might not manifest themselves in a detectable trait, Holst-Jensen said.</p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/demand-growing-for-accurate-gm-testing/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/demand-growing-for-accurate-gm-testing/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

[TURIN, ITALY] Science is struggling to keep up with the increasing worldwide demand for rigorous tests for genetically modified organisms, the fourth EuroScience Open Forum, in Turin, heard yesterday (6 July).

Testing for the presence of very low levels of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in foods is posing several challenges, from choosing appropriate sampling procedures and detection methods to resolving uncertainties in the interpretation of results, especially those close to permitted levels, experts said.

The development and cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops is on the rise with about 125 million hectares planted in 25 countries in 2008. But approval processes for marketing GM products vary from country to country, which affects the international trade in foods.

"There are difficulties in coming up with a detection method that is applicable across all laboratories," said Emilio Rodrigues Cerezo, a researcher at the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Spain. This means that although some countries, such as those in the European Union (EU), have banned the import of GMOs, small levels could still reach them from countries with more relaxed testing methods.

Countries worldwide are increasingly calling for reliable and comparable testing and approval processes, which are difficult to achieve, experts said at the meeting.

"The theory of GMO testing has been developed but its actual practice is proving to be challenging," Guy van den Eede, a researcher at the EU’s Joint Research Council, told SciDev.Net.

Claudia Paoletti, a senior scientist at the GMO unit of the European Food Safety Authority, said that more research is needed on the genetic variations that can occur within samples of specific GM products, which requires complicated sampling protocols which themselves create various sampling errors.

"It is not only important to know how many samples are being tested but also how they have been taken," Paoletti said. "We need to find the balance between good science and time and financial constraints."

Arne Holst-Jensen, a researcher at the National Veterinary Institute, Norway, said that GMO testing can detect the modified genetic material, the protein the new gene codes for, or how that protein is expressed as a specific trait.

But even if a gene is present it does not always produce the target protein — or it can produce varying amounts of the protein, which might not manifest themselves in a detectable trait, Holst-Jensen said.