The ending of the EU's controversial ban on new genetically modified foods is unlikely to bring a flood of engineered products into our shops, writes Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor
New genetically modified foods are back on the menu after the European Commission's decision to approve the sale of a new engineered sweetcorn product. Produced by Swiss agrochemical company Syngenta, tins of its modified sweetcorn may now appear on supermarket shelves. This is the EU's first engineered food approval since April 1998.
Not that genetically modified (GM) foods had really been off the menu. The Commission had approved the sale of 34 products before its de facto moratorium on new arrivals took effect in 1998. These included foods containing modified corn, tomato and soybean.
Engineered foods have probably been appearing on our dinner plates from as far back as the mid-1990s, when US farmers in particular began to grow and export GM ingredient crops. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland, which monitors food safety and hygiene, has been testing for GM ingredients in food here on a regular basis since 2000 and has found them since that time.
So yesterday's decision by the Commission was really just a return to a process that had started some years ago: the application of the new genetic technologies to our food. It is a commercially driven process that has helped stir up public angst and fuelled consumer resistance to products that in repeated tests have been shown to be harmless.
Those opposed to the application of this technology rightly argue that GM ingredients are already out there and have been eaten over the years by unsuspecting consumers. It may seem ironic, then, for the Commissioner responsible for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, to hail the decision as a great day for consumers.
"This is an important day for consumer choice in Europe," he told a press conference in Brussels yesterday. "The so-called de facto moratorium is ended."
His confidence in a good day's work, however, relates more to the fact that a whole new battery of consumer protections is now in place, including comprehensive labelling and traceability controls. These were developed during the moratorium and put in place before yesterday's decision on the "BT-11" sweetcorn.
The Commission's decision was forced by the failure of successive European ministerial councils to make decisions on GM approvals. Europe found itself under pressure from pro-GM countries, including Canada, Argentina and the US, to accept GM exports, using world trade agreements to force the issue.
By June 1999 however the GM issue had become politically fraught, with politicians realising that voters did not want GM. France and Greece led calls for a halt on new GM approvals at an environmental ministers' meeting and won backing from Italy, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium and Austria to form a blocking minority. The moratorium was on.
The ministers decided in July 2000 to stick to their guns, at least until the Commission brought in regulations on labelling and traceability of GM products. This it did, and these came into full force in April this year.
It set a limit of 0.9 per cent on the amount of GM material allowed in a product before it must be labelled as genetically modified. The European Food Safety Authority is now also in operation, assessing the safety of GM foods before they can reach the consumer.
Still the ministers and other bodies, including the Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health, could not reach agreement on whether to allow BT-11 to reach the European market. The committee voted on the issue last November but failed to reach a qualified majority.
The Commission approved the sweetcorn, giving the ministerial council three more months to reach agreement.
This final opportunity was also funked, with the council unable to achieve a qualified majority. It then fell to the Commission yesterday to lift the ban and allow in the first approved product under the new, tighter controls.
It is relatively simple to detect hidden GM material using existing technologies, according to Dr Patrick O'Mahony, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland's chief specialist in biotechnology. "It can be policed."
There are 23 GM food products lined up and awaiting approval since the moratorium began and these will now begin moving through the system, says Mr Matt Moran, director of the Irish BioIndustry Association, which represents biotechnology companies here.
All, however, will now have to traverse the approval procedure, a fact that will slow the release of new GM foods, Dr O'Mahony believes.
"Consumers need not be worried," he said yesterday. "It is not as though there is going to be a whole slew of GM products coming on the market. What has happened today is the process has finally seen through one product."
Not that there will be a rush by consumers for any new GM products on supermarket shelves. A majority of Europeans, up to 70 per cent, view with scepticism and alarm the arrival of new GM foods.
The question is why we so fear this technology when test after test has shown it to be harmless.