Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the Council of Ministers. If the Council takes no decision within three
months, or does not reach a qualified majority indicating that it opposes
the proposal, the European Commission can adopt it.
In addition, the labeling provisions were extended to cover GM feed
as well as foods produced from GMO but not containing any GMO-
derived material, such as refined oils produced from GM oilseeds that
are not distinguishable from conventional oil. A threshold of 0.9 percent
was established for the adventitious or technically unavoidable presence
of genetically modified material, that is, new proteins or rDNA, in foods
or feed, when the marketing of such material within the EU has been
authorized in accordance with the law.
A so-called zero tolerance applies to food and feed containing mate-
rial from GMOs that are not approved in the EU.
32
The applicant is further obliged to provide with the application a
method to detect the genetic modification as well as reference material
that enables the European Commission's Joint Research Center to vali-
date the detection method.
Regulation (EC) No 1830/2003 requires traceability of GMO and
derived products and provides a legal basis for case-by-case decisions on
postmarket monitoring requirements where deemed necessary.
33
Under
the new rules, business organizations must transmit and retain informa-
tion about products that contain or are produced from GMOs at each
stage of the placing on the market.
Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 also provided for transitional mea-
sures allowing applications that were in an advanced stage of the autho-
rization procedure to continue to be considered and authorized under
the relevant legislation, however, in accordance with the requirements
laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003. Hence, three decisions
32
Heberer, T. et al. 2007. Zero tolerances in food and animal feed - Are there any scien-
tific alternatives? A European point of view on an international controversy, Toxicol-
ogy Letters 175: 126-127.
33
Regulation (EC) No 1830/2003. Official Journal of the European Union L 268: 24-28.
18.10.2003.
