EU food, grain industries call for GMO flexibility

By Jeremy Smith

BRUSSELS, June 12 (Reuters) - Leading companies in Europe's vast food industry joined forces on Thursday with key players in much of the EU grain sector to demand tolerance for tiny amounts of genetically modified material not yet allowed in EU markets.

EU feedmakers have long complained of problems sourcing raw material, warning that the consequences of Europe's extreme caution and "zero tolerance" of unauthorised GMOs, could be disastrous for the food and feed sectors.

Europe's food safety chief has already promised to draft a proposal before early August that would permit very limited amounts -- less than one percent -- of unauthorised GM material to be detected in imports of foods like maize, rice and soya.

EU law sets a threshold of 0.9 percent for GM material in food and feed, above which a cargo must be labelled as biotech.

As with most areas of biotech policy in the European Union, the zero-tolerance issue has proved sharply divisive: both among EU countries, and between industry and environment groups.

Green groups strongly oppose the idea of letting unauthorised GMOs, even in tiny amounts, into EU markets. The biotech industry says it is impractical and unrealistic not to accept that they will occasionally be found in import cargoes.

"It is simply impossible to guarantee the total absence of GM traces from countries where GM crops are widely grown," said Ruth Rawling, chairwoman of the food and feed safety unit at Coceral, the EU's major grain trade lobby, in a statement.

The problem for GM crop-growing countries, in particular the United States, Canada and Argentina, is that EU law at the moment does not tolerate the accidental presence of unauthorised GMOs that have been approved elsewhere.