German farming minister Ilse Aigner has said the German government will oppose any relaxation of rules governing traces of genetically modified organisms in food.

Last year, the EU relaxed its rules on imports, allowing for traces of unapproved GM organisms in feedstuffs imported from regions where GM crops are grown. European commissioners said this was to prevent the disruption of feed grain imports, but critics claimed the relaxation was allowing unpopular and unapproved GM materials to enter the European food chain “through the back door.”

The EU is expected to produce a draft law in the near future allowing a similar easing of regulations for food imports. The new rules have been proposed by health and consumer affairs commissioner John Dalli, who supports GM technology. It is expected that, if introduced, they would result in the same 0.1 per cent threshold as affects animal feed imports.  

Today, German minister Aigner announced she would oppose any such move towards a relaxation of the zero-tolerance rules covering imports for human consumption. She said relaxing legislation on food would impinge on consumers’ rights to opt for GM-free food if they so wish and fly in the face of moves towards greater transparency.

Although some global regions, notably North and parts of South America, have adopted widespread cultivation of GM crops, in Europe only one such crop is licensed for commercial cultivation. The European public remains extremely sceptical of the technology.

Although new GM varieties are approved in other global regions each year, these cannot be imported into the EU, even in small traces, until they have been subjected to testing by EU authorities, a process which takes much longer than elsewhere. Although food industry lobbyists have called for the rules to be eased, the suggestion has proven unpopular with politicians and consumers.

Each year in the EU, shipments of grains are turned away due to contamination with unlicensed GMOs. In January, the European Commission introduced new regulations covering several new measures aimed at preventing unauthorised GM materials reaching European outlets, following repeated contamination of rice consignments.

Tweet