According to EC regulations food/feed and food/feed ingredients containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) authorised in Europe in concentrations above 0.9 % must be labelled appropriately. Additionally, feed may contain 0.1 % of GMOs for which an authorisation procedure is pending or the authorisation of which has expired.
The implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1830/2003 and Regulation (EU) No 619/2011 requires determining the concentration of GMOs in food and feed products – an obligation that can only be fulfilled using certified reference materials.
Since 1997, GMO certified reference materials for various GM events in maize, soya, potato, sugar beet, and cotton have been developed and produced at IRMM. Research investigations have resulted in major improvements, for instance a dry-mixing technique to avoid DNA degradation in ground GMO and non-GMO powders produced from seeds and cryo-grinding techniques to allow the milling of material with a high fat content.
The powders can be used for standardisation of GMO measurements commonly based on DNA detection following amplification by real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Additionally they are well suited for validation of screening and quantification methods for food and feed. More than 20 series of GMO certified reference material powders have been produced in various concentration levels with nominal mass fractions between 0 and 100 %.
IRMM offers the Biotech Industry a service to develop new GMO reference materials (see services under the reference materials catalogue).